Channel 0510 Political Parties | Politicians

8 - 28 February 2010 Wisdom in Thai Traditional Painting by Sutin Panyadeang

2010-02-07T06:23:00.001-08:00

Sutin Panyadeang, guaranteed by 3nd prize, a copper medal in 22nd Thai Traditional painting contest of Bualuang, joins in a contest of Huachiew University in title of “the Year of the Tiger”. His “Year of the Tiger” painting is qualified for the final contest, and it is one of all paintings, shown in the exhibition of “Wisdom in Thai Traditional Painting by Sutin Panyadeang” during February 8 – 28, 2010 at 10 a.m. – 8p.m. on the 2nd floor, the exhibition room 211, River City Shopping Complex, Charoen Krung 24. See lots of notable and fine Thai paintings depicted the culture, the custom, the animals in Thai legend, Thai political history, and much more. All paintings with acrylic on canvas reflected his ideas and feeling in mind have delicate lines and attracted colors.

Royal House projects an upbeat for home building market in 2010 and will open its first provincial branch in Chonburi.

2010-02-07T06:22:00.001-08:00

Royal House, Thailand’s top home building company, guides that home building market in 2010 will grow thanks to improving global economy and stable political backdrop, which are expected to bring back purchasing power into the market. Being confident in its potentials and experienced personnel, the company will aggressively open its first provincial branch in Chonburi and preemptively launch new inexpensive housing models at 2 million Baht price point at the event to be held during January 27, 2010 – February 2, 2010 at 1st floor, Central Plaza Lardpaow.

Mr.Sakda Kovisuth, Managing Director of Royal House Co., Ltd., reveals today that the home building market in 2010 should improve thanks to several favorable factors, i.e. improving global economy and stable local political backdrop seen since late last year, which are expected to reinstate consumer confidence and bring back purchasing power. In addition, since the number of eastern provincial customers has been noticeably rising, the company has decided to open its first provincial branch in Chonburi.

“From mid to late last year, upbeat outlook was seen in the home building market and it is expected to continue this year. We project rising consumer purchasing power as consumers are somewhat used to the negative factors, like the World financial crisis and local political unrest. Though oil price is expected to rise, it should remain stable for a certain period of time. So I would say, this year could be a new milestone for Royal House, as we aggressively move into our first provincial market in Chonburi and we do look for more as we gradually move forward into the future.” said Mr.Sakda.

Under its “Smart Home Building” slogan, Royal House posted an as-expected sale of 800 Baht in 2009 and projects a sales target at 900 million Baht in 2010. The 10% growth is due to its confidence in positive internal and external catalysts, whether economical, political or personnel. In 2010, Royal House will continue to focus on sound construction system and solid residential structure, which it provides a guarantee of 15 long years. In addition to system and structure, Royal House also places high priority on services and craftsmanship as it has continually trained and developed all of its personnel to give quality services to its customers during the past 5 years.

Mr.Waiyawit Hanwiriyaritha, Royal House’s Design Consultant, further adds that the company has continuously developed its designs to answer to the needs of its customers in all segments. Lately, the company has launched a new inexpensive home series, which was developed in response to the needs of a sizable group of trusted customers who need medium-sized homes with usable areas ranging from 167 – 200 SQM from Royal House.

Royal House is one of Thailand’s top home building companies. With more than 20 years of long service experience, it currently has a total of 8 branches including Dusit, Srinakarin, Chaengwattana, Rama 3, Rajapruke, Bangkae, Suwannabhumi and Chonburi.

THAI President & Star Alliance CEO Strengthen Alliance Cooperation

2010-01-30T01:07:00.001-08:00

Thai Airways International President Mr. Piyasvasti Amranand today met with Star Alliance CEO Mr. Jaan Albrecht in Bangkok to discuss future strategies and cooperation under the Alliance.

In 1997, THAI was the first Asian member to join Star Alliance during its founding, which has now grown into a strong 26 member alliance. Mr. Amranand signaled the importance he associated to Star Alliance membership by attending the recent Chief Executive Board meeting in Brussels, Belgium in December 2009.

Mr. Albrecht, a former pilot and senior executive at Mexicana Airlines, has been CEO of Star Alliance since 2001. He has steered the Alliance through a rapid growth period over the past nine years.

Speaking about Star Alliance membership, Mr. Piyasvasti Amranand, THAI President, said, “I am determined to extract as much competitive advantage from our membership in Star Alliance as possible. THAI must use the obvious advantages Star Alliance offers, such as the largest connected network in the world, the cost saving opportunities it offers, the access to technologies and value added benefits, such as frequent flyer mile earnings and redemptions across all 26 carriers.”

Mr. Jaan Albrecht, Star Alliance CEO, said, “THAI has shown a constant and continual commitment to Star Alliance throughout since its founding in 1997. We are ready to assist THAI in developing new strategies, which will enhance the airline’s competitiveness and support its active role in Star Alliance.”

A Christmas Carol - November 26, 2009 Only in DISNEY DIGITAL 3D and IMAX 3D

2009-11-21T01:07:00.001-08:00

“It’s as if Charles Dickens wrote this story to be a movie—it’s so visual and cinematic. It’s the greatest time-travel story ever written and I wanted to do the movie the way I believe it was originally envisioned by the author.”

- Robert Zemeckis, Director/Producer/Screenwriter

“DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL,” a multi-sensory thrill ride re-envisioned by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, captures the fantastical essence of the classic Dickens tale in a groundbreaking 3D motion picture event.

Ebenezer Scrooge (JIM CARREY) begins the Christmas holiday with his usual miserly contempt, barking at his faithful clerk (GARY OLDMAN) and his cheery nephew (COLIN FIRTH). Scrooge makes it clear that he has no intention of enjoying the holiday and, as always, goes home—alone—where he encounters the ghost of his dead business partner Joseph Marley. Marley, who’s paying the price in the afterlife for his own callousness, hopes to help Scrooge avoid a similar fate and tells him that he will be visited by three spirits. But when the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come take Old Scrooge on an eye-opening journey revealing truths he’s reluctant to face, he must open his heart to undo years of ill will before it’s too late.

Walt Disney Pictures and ImageMovers Digital present “DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL,” a production directed by Robert Zemeckis from his own adaptation based on the classic novella by Charles Dickens. The film is the first film developed by ImageMovers Digital, which was created by Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke to develop 3D performance capture films exclusively for The Walt Disney Studios. “DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL” is produced by Starkey, Zemeckis and Rapke.

The stellar cast is led by multi-faceted actor Jim Carrey (“Yes Man,” “Horton Hears a Who,” “Bruce Almighty”) who, like many of his co-stars, appears in several pivotal roles. In addition to portraying Ebenezer Scrooge at various ages old and young, Carrey brings to life the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Christmas Yet to Come.

Joining Carrey is a diverse group of gifted actors. Gary Oldman (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”) stars as Scrooge’s beleaguered employee, Bob Cratchit, his young and ill son Tiny Tim, as well as the ghost of Joseph Marley, Scrooge’s deceased business partner. Colin Firth (“Love Actually,” “The Accidental Husband,” “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason”) stars as Fred, Scrooge’s cheerful, good-hearted nephew. Robin Wright Penn (“State of Play”) stars as Belle, who long ago stole Scrooge’s heart, and Fan, Scrooge’s now deceased sister.

One of England’s most distinguished actors, Bob Hoskins (“Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”) reunites with Zemeckis as Old Fezziwig, to whom Scrooge was apprenticed as a young man, and Old Joe who runs an old rag and bottle shop and purchases the “deceased” Scrooge’s bed linens and curtains. Cary Elwes (“Ella Enchanted,” “The Princess Bride”) rounds out the cast and portrays multiple characters, including young Dick Wilkins, Scrooge’s old roommate.

The creative team includes production designer Doug Chiang (“Beowulf,” “The Polar Express”), director of cinematography Robert Presley (“Enchanted,” “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” “What Lies Beneath”), film editor Jeremiah O’Driscoll (“Beowulf,” “The Polar Express”), composer Alan Silvestri (“Beowulf,” “Night at the Museum”) and visual effects supervisor George Murphy (“King Kong,” “Constantine”).

A Walt Disney Pictures and ImageMovers Digital film, “DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL” will be presented in Disney Digital 3D™, RealD 3D and IMAX® 3D.

RealD 3D is the new generation of entertainment, with crisp, bright, ultra-realistic images so lifelike you feel like you've stepped inside the movie. RealD 3D adds depth that puts you in the thick of the action, whether you're joining favorite characters in a new world or dodging objects that seem to fly into the theatre. RealD pioneered today's digital 3D and is the world's most widely used 3D cinema technology with over 9,000 screens under contract and nearly 4,000 screens installed in 48 countries. And unlike the old days of paper glasses, RealD 3D glasses look like sunglasses, are recyclable and designed to comfortably fit on all moviegoers, and easily over prescription glasses (www.RealD.com).

Along with the film’s nationwide release in conventional theatres, “DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL” will be released in IMAX® theatres, digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® through proprietary IMAX DMR® technology. With crystal clear images, laser-aligned digital sound and maximized field of view, IMAX provides the world’s most immersive movie experience.
DICKENS’ STORY
Filmmakers Covet Author’s Vision
“Everybody loves a good transformational story.

You know, somebody who sees the light, who finally finds out what’s important in life. And, this is one of the greatest ones ever written.”

- Jim Carrey, “Scrooge” and the “Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present & Yet to Come”

Thought to be one of the greatest Christmas stories ever told and enjoyed by millions each year at the holidays, “A Christmas Carol” was originally published by Charles Dickens himself in 1843. The novella was an immediate and enduring success and would become a holiday tradition for generations. It was the world’s first time travel story and perhaps the most beloved of ghost stories.

At its core, however, the story is one of redemption. “Everybody loves a good transformational story,” says Jim Carrey. “You know, somebody who sees the light, who finally finds out what’s important in life. And, this is one of the greatest ones ever written.”
It is the ghosts, of course, who help turn the stingy Scrooge around.

- The Ghost of Christmas Past (JIM CARREY) appears in the form of a flickering flame—Dickens describes the Ghost as a “bright, clear jet of light.” The Ghost escorts Scrooge on a journey back in time, revisiting moments in his past. He sees himself as a youngster, as an apprentice to Fezziwig (BOB HOSKINS), as a vibrant young man chatting with co-clerk Dick Wilkins (CARY ELWES), and as a man in love and engaged to Belle (ROBIN WRIGHT PENN). The memories deeply affect Scrooge.

- The Ghost of Christmas Present (CARREY)—a merry giant decked out in robes—arrives to show Scrooge what his life is really like in the present. Scrooge is taken to the Cratchit household and sees his clerk’s meager situation, including the gravity of the illness of his young son, Tiny Tim (GARY OLDMAN). The Ghost also allows Scrooge to observe his nephew’s Christmas party, where they witness a guessing game in which Scrooge’s dreary life is the punch line.

- Next up, and perhaps most unsettling, is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (CARREY), a phantom who takes Scrooge into the future as the pair explores an unnamed man’s recent death. Businessmen discuss the man’s riches, Old Joe (HOSKINS) and Mrs. Dilber (FIONNULA FLANNIGAN) divvy up his bedding and curtains. Scrooge demands to know the man’s identity; he’s shocked to read his own name on the tombstone. If only he had another chance.

“You take the meanest man alive and show him the error of his ways… and we get to come along for the ride.”
- Robert Zemeckis, Director/Producer/Screenwriter

The filmmakers felt that no film version had truly captured the story in a way that Dickens truly intended. “It’s as if Charles Dickens wrote this story to be a movie—it’s so visual and cinematic,” says Zemeckis. “It’s the greatest time-travel story ever written and I wanted to do the movie the way I believe it was originally envisioned by the author.”

“‘DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL’ is a classic tale with stunning performances and powerful visuals,” adds producer Steve Starkey. “It has it all.”

Performance capture is a process that digitally captures the performances of the actors with computerized cameras in a full 360 degrees; the film will be presented in Disney Digital 3D™. The technologies allowed the filmmakers to present a true Dickensian world with no artistic restrictions, transporting the audience to a time and place previously unavailable.

“The technology is liberating for me as a filmmaker,” says Zemeckis. “It allows me to separate the cinema aspect of making a movie, which is something all filmmakers try to control, and realize the magic of the performances from my cast.

It’s the perfect blend of welcoming those wonderful accidents that happen when an actor is performing, and then being able to put the cinema language into the film.”

Starkey adds, “The characters in the story are bigger than life—ghosts and even Scrooge himself who evolves through time. We can do things in this new form of cinema that you couldn’t do before.”

According to Zemeckis, “DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL” is the perfect film to showcase how far performance capture technology has come and how it allows filmmakers to be innovative, yet still showcase the strengths of the cast. For the actors, it’s a fascinating process with no costumes, no physical makeup and very little as far as sets. Carrey and the rest of the cast had their work cut out for them in their efforts to become the characters. “A lot of people think that these movies are just voice-over work,” says Carrey, “but they feature complete performances by actors.”

While the technology afforded filmmakers incredible freedoms to create environments and characters that have never been seen on the big screen before, it still comes back to the story, says Zemeckis. “You take the meanest man alive and show him the error of his ways…and we get to come along for the ride.”
CASTING A CLASSIC
Jim Carrey Steps in as Scrooge

Even as Robert Zemeckis was writing the script, he had only one actor in mind to play the role of Scrooge—Jim Carrey.

“Jim’s not just a wonderful actor, he’s a chameleon,” says Starkey. “He can work his body in ways other actors can’t. He’s just so versatile. I can’t imagine the film without him.”

Neither could the director. Zemeckis had no doubts that Carrey’s talent as an imaginative and risk-taking actor would make him the quintessential Scrooge. “When I did my first performance-capture movie and I realized the potential of what could be done, I couldn’t help but think that the greatest performance-capture actor that exists is Jim Carrey,” says the director. “His face is so incredibly expressive, and he’s so great at creating characters, giving him the ability to completely change his physicality. All of his talents as a performer and as a comedian are included in his performance.”

Producer Rapke agrees, “There is a place that he goes to that in a million years you wouldn’t think it was possible. He has an unlimited amount of extraordinary physicality. The way he transforms himself into Scrooge is amazing. He gives his all, pursuing every single permutation of the character. He comes up with so many alternatives and they are all great. It’s an embarrassment of riches.”

“Scrooge,” says Carrey, “is not a person who really loves his life. He wants to live it alone. He’s not a spiritual guy on a mountain. He’s a guy who wants to make his cage as comfortable as possible because if he steps outside it, he risks being seen by people. He risks people finding out that he’s broken and bitter.”

But Carrey believes there’s more to Scrooge than the miser. “Nobody is just one thing, you know? There’s much more to all of us. Generally at the bottom of it all, there’s goodness.”

“Since the ghosts are all an extension of Scrooge, it’s only fitting that they all have a bit of Scrooge in them. So it was a perfect fit to have Jim play all the parts.”
- Robert Zemeckis, Director/Producer/Screenwriter

Not only does Carrey play the old and miserly Scrooge, but because of the advantages afforded by the film’s technology, Carrey is able to portray Scrooge at every age—from a young 7-year-old, alone and friendless, sitting quietly at school, to an old man, bent over and feeble. The technology captures Carrey’s unique acting performances as the actor expertly crafts the evolution of one character’s lifetime. “He’s a guy in pain,” says Carrey. “He’s a guy who didn’t have anybody to love him.”

Carrey also portrays the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. “Since the ghosts are all an extension of Scrooge, it’s only fitting that they all have a bit of Scrooge in them,” says Zemeckis. “So it was a perfect fit to have Jim play all the parts.”

Zemeckis called on several other cast members to fulfill more than one role. Gary Oldman plays the meek, but optimistic Bob Cratchit, as well as Cratchit’s young ailing son Tiny Tim, and Marley’s ghost. “We hired a great actor who himself is a master of disguise,” says Zemeckis.

“Gary Oldman is one of the most brilliant actors working today and to have him come and do these characters that require different aspects of personality and experience, it’s amazing to watch,” adds Rapke.

Classically trained British theater actor Colin Firth is one of the few actors playing only one role, but he plays a central figure in the film. Firth portrays the forever optimistic Fred, whose cheery disposition and opposing outlook on life is a stark contrast to that of his grumpy uncle Scrooge.

“Fred is quite simply the opposite of Scrooge,” explains Firth. “He’s the foil. If Scrooge is the ultimate pessimist, Fred is the ultimate optimist. I think Fred sees life very simply. ‘Why can’t we be friends? It’s not complicated. I’m inviting you to dinner. Why don’t you just come for dinner?’ I think he embodies the Christmas spirit. He wishes no ill to anybody.”

“Colin Firth is a dashing actor,” says Starkey. “He is just a perfect, proper young Englishman.”

Robin Wright Penn, who appeared in Zemeckis’ previous performance-capture film “Beowulf,” as well as the director’s acclaimed hit “Forrest Gump,” portrays Belle, the beautiful young woman whom Scrooge chooses not to pursue, turning his back on a life of love and light. Penn also plays Scrooge’s young sister Fan, for whom Scrooge had a great affection; he could never quite get over her untimely death.

“Robin is part of our repertory company,” says Rapke. “There is not a female role that we don’t think of her first. She is so talented, and she is part of our creative family.

“As Belle, she is part of the moment that forms the older Scrooge,” continues Rapke. “She is the object of his love. She represents what could have been and is the source of Scrooge’s greatest sadness. His life would have been totally different. And for Fan, we needed somebody to portray that kind of beautiful innocence, that verve for life with a slightly naive quality—that’s Robin.”

The filmmakers called on one of England’s most distinctive actors, Bob Hoskins, to join the cast. Hoskins left school at 15 to pursue an acting career. His breakout performance came in 1987 with his Academy Award®-nominated role in “Mona Lisa.” He continued to dazzle audiences in films such as “Nixon,” “Maid in Manhattan,” and “Mrs. Henderson Presents.”

“There is an amazing history between Bob Zemeckis and Bob Hoskins because of ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,’” says Rapke. “Bob said, ‘The only guy I can see being Fezziwig is Bob Hoskins. He can dance and he has a great face. And Bob should play Old Joe, too. He would be fabulous in that role as well.’”

Although it had been 20 years since the actor had worked with Zemeckis, Hoskins was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the director again. “My main reason to do this film was to work again with Robert Zemeckis,” says Hoskins. “Bob is the Einstein of cinema. His imagination is always worth seeing. It’s extraordinary. I’ve got a very soft spot for Zemeckis—he’s mad as a March hare, but I love him,” laughs Hoskins.

Starring alongside Hoskins as Mrs. Dilber is the Abbey Theatre-trained Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan. On stage and on screen, Flanagan has appeared in films including “Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood,” “Transamerica,” and “Waking Ned Divine.” Filmmakers tapped Flanagan to portray Scrooge’s charwoman, a poor woman who takes advantage of her master’s untimely demise by stealing his personal belongings and haggling with Old Joe over the items.

“Their way of celebrating is to gloat over what she’s managed to steal from Scrooge’s house,” says Flanagan.

The multitalented Cary Elwes joins the cast and plays a menagerie of characters with great diversity and range: the mad fiddler who plays at Fezziwig’s big bash; Dick Wilkins, Scrooge’s roommate from years ago; and a businessman who is shunned by Scrooge when he solicits donations for the poor.

“Cary plays multiple characters and he’s got the versatility to support them all,” says Starkey.

Elwes has a unique connection to the story. The actor is actually related to the man believed to be the inspiration for Scrooge. “John Megid Elwes is an ancestor of mine who was a renowned miser,” says Elwes. “He was a politician who changed his name from Megid to Elwes in order to gain favor with his uncle, Sir Harvey Elwes, who he knew was going to die without an heir and he had tons of money. And it worked. He managed to get all Mr. Harvey Elwes’s estates and proceeded to become one of the most famous misers in English history. He was renowned for never changing his clothes.”

Completing the cast are Leslie Manville as Mrs. Cratchit, Leslie Zemeckis as Fred’s wife, and Paul Blackthorne as Belle’s husband. Ranging in age from 7 to 17, six young actors were tapped to play dozens of characters including the Cratchit kids, Belle’s children, street urchins and carolers. They include Sage Ryan, Sammi Hanratty, Molly Quinn, Daryl Sabara and brothers Ryan and Raymond Ochoa.
ZEMECKIS AT THE HELM
It All Comes Back to the Story

“I think what makes him an extraordinary filmmaker is that his films are not just blockbusters, they’re films that people cherish year after year. They’re all favorites. It’s character and it’s story.”
- Colin Firth, “Fred”

With films like “Forrest Gump,” the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Cast Away” and “The Polar Express” under his belt, Academy Award®-winning director Robert Zemeckis has established himself as an expert filmmaker.
It’s all about telling a good story.

“I think what makes him an extraordinary filmmaker is that his films are not just blockbusters,” says Colin Firth, “they’re films that people cherish year after year. They’re all favorites. It’s character and it’s story. Films like ‘Back to the Future’ were fantastic from a special effects point of view but it wasn’t about that. You wanted to see what was going to happen to the character when he goes back in time. Everything was thought through on a human level. Bob is a storyteller.”

For Zemeckis, the process began with the writing of the script. Utilizing this superb source material, the writing process resulted in a script that is accessible to the modern audience and yet true to the original material.

“The source material is so good and it is all there,” says producer Jack Rapke. “Bob wrote a brilliant adaptation of Dickens. There is such depth to the story and the character and the journey that is truly unparalleled.”

Those who work with the Academy Award®-winning director find him open-minded, innovative and collaborative.

“We worked together on ‘Forrest Gump,’ says Robin Wright Penn of the director. “Loved him then, love him now. He’s like Santa Claus, because he’s jolly in his openness to actors. He will say, ‘Let’s explore. Sure. Why not? Let’s try it.’ It’s such a liberating way to work. Because why not try? Why not fail? Because, guess what? We don’t have to use it, you know? He’s very much like that. He doesn’t work with a lot of fixed ideas.”

Production designer Doug Chiang, who worked with Zemeckis on “The Polar Express,” “Monster House” and “Beowulf,” adds: “Bob is a fantastic director to work for, primarily because he always pushes the boundaries of design. And what I love about it is that even in the initial meetings, what he describes and what I envision in my mind during those first meetings is almost always just a fraction of where he’s going. And that’s the part that I love as a designer, because I know that whatever we start on day one in the first few weeks, the end result is going to be ten times that. And, as a designer, it’s really the surprise and the challenge of the unexpected that I get from Bob.”

“Bob Zemeckis provides a challenge for everybody working with him,” says Starkey. “He’s a wonderful collaborator. He actually looks for collaboration with those around him and actually feeds on the artistic input of everybody that works with him. He’s very smart and knows many crafts as well as the people themselves do, and he challenges them in their craft. And he’s always exploring new technologies and at the same time new stories. So you get the best of both worlds. You get to take cinema into the future and at the same time, tell stories that haven’t been seen before.”
THE SOUNDS OF CHRISTMAS
Filmmakers Turn to Industry Greats for the Film’s Soundtrack

Director Robert Zemeckis didn’t have to contemplate who he’d call on to score the music for “DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL.” Composer Alan Silvestri was his first choice. “Alan and I have a long working relationship that spans 25 years,” says Zemeckis.

The two began working together on Zemeckis’ film “Romancing the Stone.” Silvestri’s suspenseful scorehelped make the action-comedy a hit. They continued to collaborate with films including the “Back to the Future” series, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” the Oscar®-winning “Forrest Gump” (for which Silvestri received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Score), “Contact,” “What Lies Beneath,” “Cast Away” (for which the composer won a Grammy Award® for Best Instrumental Composition), and the spectacular Christmas fantasy “The Polar Express.” The song “Believe,” performed by Josh Groban, which Silvestri co-wrote with Glen Ballard, was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Original Song category and won a Grammy Award for Best Song for a Motion Picture. Zemeckis and Silvestri also teamed up for the epic tale “Beowulf.”

“It’s truly a gift that one of the greatest tenors of our time brought his talents to such a powerful and emotional song. We feel extremely fortunate.”
- Jack Rapke, Producer

For “DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL,” the duo employed the same collaborative process they’ve used for every movie. “Like always,” says Zemeckis, “I asked Alan to underscore the emotion of all the scenes.”

Adds producer Jack Rapke: “The music is a critical element of the entire film. It’s our last opportunity to tell the story, highlighting the emotions, the suspense.”

Silvestri’s classical score was recorded by a 103-piece orchestra in Los Angeles. “It’s a dynamic, powerful score,” says Rapke. “It’s gentle when it needs to be gentle and powerful when it needs to be powerful.”

Silvestri teamed up with Glen Ballard to create the perfect song to cap the film. “God Bless Us Everyone,” an original song inspired by the film’s famous line delivered by Tiny Tim at the end of the movie, was recorded by none other than Andrea Bocelli. Says Zemeckis: “Bocelli heard the wonderful song composed by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri and immediately decided he wanted to record it. I think the song will be a Christmas classic.”

Adds Rapke: “We’d heard that Andrea Bocelli was working on a Christmas album. The stars aligned—with a little work—and it turned out he was able to record this incredible song. It’s truly a gift that one of the greatest tenors of our time brought his talents to such a powerful and emotional song. We feel extremely fortunate.”

“Disney is synonymous with dreams and it’s really an enormous pleasure to take part in the project,” says Bocelli. “All of us, parents and children alike, grew up waiting for Christmas with those characters who are much loved by different generations, true icons of goodness who have kept the full force of their strength intact over time.

“The matching up of Dickens and Disney is brilliant and inspired,” continues Bocelli. “The film makes us feel like better people, I would say, enriched by a dream that soon evil will be defeated and good will triumph. We feel affection for the old miser. There is neither hatred nor conflict. The story reminds us that there is time to change right up until the end.”

“God Bless Us Everyone” aptly captures the spirit of the film, says Bocelli. “It’s a sweet and majestic song with a pleasantly surprising evocative power which suffuses our senses and tells us about the triumph of forgiveness and redemption.”

Not only did Bocelli record the song in English, but he contributed Spanish and Italian versions of the song. “Many languages, but just one Christmas, just one music, which is the music of the heart,” Bocelli says. “I like to sing in other languages, as well as Italian. It gives me a wider sense of belonging, a sense of being closer to the people who inhabit the world and who love to share in its joys and sorrows. Of course, sometimes it requires more concentration to be able to pronounce certain sounds in the English language, but I am happy with my work which I always tackle with passion and dedication. The music springs from the desire to be better always and not just for one day of the year.”

Walt Disney Records releases the film’s soundtrack digitally on Nov. 3, 2009, featuring 17 cues from Silvestri’s score, as well as “God Bless Us Everyone.”
ABOUT THE CAST

JIM CARREY (Scrooge, Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come) stars opposite Ewan McGregor in “I Love You Phillip Morris,” a dark comedy that was written and will mark the directing debut of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the writing team behind “Bad Santa.” Based on a book by Houston Chronicle crime reporter Steve McVicker, the fact-based film casts Carrey as Steven Russell, a married father whose exploits land him in the Texas criminal justice system. In prison he falls in love with his cellmate (McGregor), who eventually is set free, leading Russell to escape from Texas prisons four times. The film will be released in February 2010.

Carrey was last seen in the Warner Bros. hit comedy “Yes Man,” directed by Peyton Reed. In the film, based on a memoir by British author Danny Wallace, Carrey stars as a man who decides to change his life by saying yes to absolutely everything that comes his way. The film co-stars Zooey Deschanel and Bradley Cooper.

In 2008, Carrey was heard as the voice of Horton the Elephant in the blockbuster hit “Horton Hears a Who!,” 20th Century Fox’s CG-animated feature film version of Dr. Seuss’ classic book.

In 2007 Carrey starred opposite Virginia Madsen in the New Line psychological thriller “The Number 23,” directed by Joel Schumacher. In 2005 Carrey starred opposite Tea Leoni in the highly successful Columbia Pictures/Sony comedy “Fun with Dick and Jane.” The film was directed by Dean Parisot (“Galaxy Quest”) and produced by Brian Grazer. In 2004 he starred in the Paramount Pictures film “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” based on the children’s book series by Daniel Handler as well as the critically acclaimed Focus Features drama “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”

In 2003, he starred in the hugely successful Universal Pictures comedy “Bruce Almighty.” The film, which has made over $470 million worldwide, was one of the highest-grossing films of the year. “Bruce Almighty” also reunited Carrey with director Tom Shadyac (“Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” & “Liar, Liar”) and writer Steve Oedekerk (“Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls”).

In 2001, Carrey starred in the Castle Rock feature “The Majestic,” directed by Frank Darabont and in 2000, he had the distinction of appearing in the year’s highest grossing film: the Universal Pictures release “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” He was nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of “Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” for his portrayal of the Grinch, as well as a People’s Choice Award in the category of “Favorite Motion Picture Star in a Comedy.”

In the summer of 2000, Carrey reunited with directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly for the 20th Century Fox comedy “Me, Myself and Irene,” for which he received an MTV Movie Award nomination in the category of “Best Comedic Performance” for his portrayal of a split personality in the film. He also won the Golden Globe® in 2000 for “Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy” for his portrayal of Andy Kaufman in the 1999 film “Man on the Moon.” He had won a Golden Globe Award the previous year for “Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama” for his role in the critically acclaimed film “The Truman Show.” The 1999 Golden Globe win marked Carrey’s first award for a dramatic role. He also received a Golden Globe nomination in 1997 for “Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy” for “Liar, Liar,” the same category in which he was nominated in 1995 for “The Mask.” In 2000, he was named “Male Star of the Year” at ShoWest.

Born January 17, 1962 in Newmarket, Ontario, Carrey knew by age three that show business was in his blood. At age 15, Carrey took off for Toronto to perform at Yuk Yuks, the famous comedy club. Following the performance, Carrey’s career took off and for the next few years he worked in comedy clubs all over Canada. In 1981, at age 19, he packed his belongings and moved to Los Angeles. Carrey immediately became a regular at Mitzi Shore’s Comedy Store, attracting the attention of comedy legend Rodney Dangerfield. Dangerfield was so impressed with the young comic that they began touring together. It was then that things began to happen for Jim Carrey.

1982 proved to be a magical year for Carrey when MTM cast him as the star of their NBC series “Duck Factory.” Although the series only lasted 13 weeks, Carrey’s work left a lasting impression in Hollywood. The next year he landed the lead role in the feature film “Once Bitten,” starring Lauren Hutton. He followed that film with roles in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Peggy Sue Got Married,” and with Geena Davis in the comedy “Earth Girls Are Easy.” In 1988, Carrey made a brief, but memorable, appearance as “Johnny Squares,” the self-destructive rock star in the Clint Eastwood film “The Dead Pool.”

In 1990, Carrey joined the cast of Fox Television’s ensemble comedy hit “In Living Color.” In November of the following year, his first Showtime Special, entitled “Jim Carrey’s Unnatural Act,” premiered to rave reviews. He followed the special’s success with a starring role as an alcoholic trying to cope with life in Fox’s Emmy nominated movie of the week “Doing Time on Maple Drive.”

In 1994, after several successful seasons on “In Living Color,” Carrey once again branched out into feature films by accepting the lead role in the Warner Bros. comedy “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.” Carrey’s no?holds?barred portrayal of “Ace Ventura” made him an instant sensation and made the film a hit. Carrey followed that success in the summer of 1994 by starring in the title role of the action?fantasy “The Mask,” based on the best?selling Dark Horse comic book series of the same name. “The Mask” went on to gross in excess of $100 million domestically, winning spectacular reviews for Carrey. That same year he starred opposite Jeff Daniels in the Farrelly brothers’ film “Dumb and Dumber.” Carrey starred as the “Riddler/ Edward Nygma” in the 1995 blockbuster sequel “Batman Forever.” The following year he went on to star in “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls,” continuing the misadventures of the world’s favorite pet detective, and then starred in Columbia Pictures’ “The Cable Guy.” Universal Pictures’ hit “Liar, Liar” opened to record-breaking numbers in 1997 earning over $100 million in ticket grosses. His triumphant triple play earned him the honor of “NATO/ShoWest Comedy Star of the Year.”

Throughout his career veteran actor CARY ELWES (Dick Wilkins, Mad Fiddler, Businessman #1, Portly Gentleman #1, Destitute Man #2) has turned in an array of outstanding, eclectic performances. He recently completed production on “A Little Murder,” opposite Terrence Howard, and “Flying Lessons,” opposite Christine Lahti and Hal Holbrook. Prior to these films he worked on Steven Spielberg’s “Tintin” and starred in the independent feature “Shadows,” opposite William Hurt.

Elwes made his cinematic debut in Marek Kanievska’s film “Another Country,” based on the award-winning play, and followed up with a starring role in the highly acclaimed historical drama “Lady Jane,” alongside Helena Bonham Carter. He then turned in a memorable portrayal as Westley in Rob Reiner’s classic fairytale “The Princess Bride,” which won over audiences around the globe. Other film credits include the hit psychological thriller “Saw,” the Academy Award®-winning war epic “Glory,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (directed by Francis Ford Coppola), Mel Brooks’ “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” “Twister,” “Liar Liar,” “Kiss the Girls,” “Shadow of the Vampire,” and Garry Marshall’s “Georgia Rule” with Jane Fonda.

On the small screen, Elwes guest starred in a gripping episode of “Law & Order: SVU” as a mob lawyer whose family is viciously attacked. In addition, he portrayed the young Pope in CBS’s telepic “Pope John Paul II.” Television credits include the Golden Globe Award®-winning miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon,” “The Riverman,” “Uprising” and a recurring role as FBI Assistant Director Brad Follmer on the final season of “The X-Files.”

Elwes was born and raised in London before moving to the U.S. in his teens. He attended college in upstate New York and went on to study at the Actors Studio and the Lee Strasberg Institute. It was back in his native England where Elwes began his film career. He later returned to New York before eventually relocating to Los Angeles.

A classically trained British theater actor, COLIN FIRTH (Fred) is a veteran of film, television and theater, with an impressive body of work spanning over three decades. Firth’s versatility has been recognized in both dramas and comedies, garnering critical acclaim and awards including nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, an Emmy nomination, and multiple BAFTA nominations.

Firth will next be seen starring in “A Single Man,” based on the acclaimed Christopher Isherwood novel. Tom Ford makes his directorial debut with the film which stars Firth as a man contemplating his last day on earth. The cast includes Julianne Moore, Ginnifer Goodwin and Matthew Goode. Firth was recently awarded Best Actor at the 2009 Venice Film Festival for his performance. “A Single Man” will be released by The Weinstein Company on December 11, 2009.

“Genova,” directed by Michael Winterbottom, and starring Firth opposite Catherine Keener, is a subtle thriller revolving around two American girls and their British father who move to Italy after their mother dies. “Genova” screened at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, the London Film Festival and the San Sebastian Film Festival, where Michael Winterbottom was awarded Best Director. “Genova” was released in the UK April 2009 and will be released by ThinkFilm in the US.

In 2008, Firth was seen in Universal Pictures’ smash-hit ABBA musical “Mamma Mia!” The cast included Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard and Amanda Seyfriend. “Mamma Mia!” has grossed over half a billion dollars around the world and is the highest-grossing film of all time in the UK. The same year, Firth was seen in “Then She Found Me,” which was written and directed by Helen Hunt. He was also seen in the Sony Classics film “And When Did You Last See Your Father” and in “Easy Virtue,” based on the Noel Coward play and directed by Stephan Elliott.

In 2004, Firth starred in the Universal/Working Title hit “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.” Firth reprised his role as ‘Mark Darcy’ opposite Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant in the film. The same year, Firth appeared in the Oscar-nominated film “Girl with a Pearl Earring” opposite Scarlett Johanssen. Firth was nominated for a European Film Award for his performance in the film.

In 2003, Firth appeared in the Universal hit “Love Actually,” written and directed by Richard Curtis. At the time of its release, “Love Actually” broke box-office records as the highest grossing British romantic comedy opening of all time in the UK and Ireland, and was the largest opening in the history of Working Title Films.

In 2002, Firth was seen starring opposite Rupert Everett, Reese Witherspoon and Judi Dench in the Miramax Film, “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Prior to that, Firth appeared in the Academy Award-nominated film “Shakespeare in Love,” directed by John Madden. Firth portrayed ‘Lord Wessex,’ the evil husband to ‘Violet De Lesseps,’ played by Gwyneth Paltrow.

In 1996, Firth appeared in the multi-Oscar-nominated film, “The English Patient,” opposite Kristen Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes. His other film credits include Atom Egoyan’s “Where the Truth Lies,” Marc Evans’ thriller “Trauma,” “Nanny McPhee,” “What a Girl Wants,” “A Thousand Acres,” with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange, “Apartment Zero,” “My Life So Far,” Nick Hornby’s “Fever Pitch,” “Circle of Friends,” “Playmaker,” and the title role in Milos Forman’s “Valmont" opposite Annette Benning.

On the small screen, Firth is infamous for his breakout role in 1995, when he played “Mr. Darcy” in the BBC adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice,” for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor and was honored with the National Television Award for “Most Popular Actor.” Firth’s latest television appearance was in 2006 in the critically acclaimed BBC television movie “Born Equal” directed by Dominic Savage (“Out of Control”). In March 2004, Firth hosted NBC’s legendary series “Saturday Night Live.” He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2001 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in the critically acclaimed HBO film "Conspiracy" and has also received the Royal Television Society Best Actor Award and a BAFTA nomination for his performance in “Tumbledown.” His other television credits include “Windmills on the Clyde: Making Donovan Quick,” “Donovan Quick,” “The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd,” “Deep Blue Sea,” “Hostages,” and the mini-series “Nostromo.” His London stage debut was in the West End production of “Another Country” playing Bennett. He was then chosen to play the character Judd in the 1984 film adaptation opposite Rupert Everett.

Firth is an active supporter of Oxfam International, an organization dedicated to fighting poverty and related injustice around the world. In 2008 he was named “Philanthropist of the Year” by The Hollywood Reporter. In 2006, Firth was voted “European Campaigner of the Year” by the EU.

With nearly 20 years as a worldwide presence in major motion pictures, GARY OLDMAN (Bob Cratchit, Young Marley, Marley’s Ghost, Tiny Tim) is also known to millions as Sirius Black (Harry Potter’s Godfather), Commissioner Jim Gordon (Batman’s crime-fighting partner), Dracula, Beethoven, Lee Harvey Oswald, Joe Orton, Sid Vicious, and also the terrorist who hijacked Harrison Ford’s Air Force One. He also starred in Luc Besson’s “The Professional” and “The Fifth Element” and also as Dr. Zachary Smith in “Lost in Space.”

Highly regarded as one of the foremost actors of his generation, and an internationally known, iconic figure, Oldman has the distinction of appearing in more successful films than any other artist spanning the past 18 years, and additionally, has appeared in more than one of the top ten highest-grossing films in history.

Oldman’s acting career began in 1979 where he worked exclusively in the theatre; from 1985-1989, he worked at London’s Royal Court. His early BBC films were Mike Leigh’s “Meantime,” and “The Firm” by the late Alan Clark. Subsequent feature films include “Sid and Nancy”; “Prick Up Your Ears,” directed by Stephen Frears; “Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead,” directed by Tom Stoppard; “State of Grace, JFK,” directed by Oliver Stone; Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” directed by Francis Ford Coppola; “Romeo is Bleeding”; “True Romance,” directed by Tony Scott; “The Professional”; “Murder in the First”; “Immortal Beloved”; and “The Scarlet Letter,” directed by Roland Joffe.

In 1995, he and manager/producing partner Douglas Urbanski formed a production company, which produced Oldman’s directorial debut, the highly acclaimed “Nil By Mouth.” The film won 9 of 17 major awards for which it was nominated and was selected to open the main competition for the 1997 50th Anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, for which Kathy Burke won Best Actress. Oldman also won the prestigious Channel Four Director’s Prize at the Edinburgh Film Festival, and the British Academy Award (shared with Douglas Urbanski) for Best Film and also the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.

During the past 18 years, Oldman has appeared in a staggering nine films that have opened at the top of the box office; the films in which he has appeared have a cumulative gross in the billions of dollars.

One of England’s most distinctive actors, BOB HOSKINS (Fezziwig, Old Joe) has found success on both sides of the Atlantic, frequently acting in both English and American productions. Among his best-known films are “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” “Cotton Club,” “Mermaids,” “Nixon,” “Maid in Manhattan,” and “Mrs. Henderson Presents.”

Born in Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, Hoskins left school at 15 with dreams of an acting career. He supported himself with odd jobs (including working in a circus as a fire eater) before gaining regular employment as a working actor on stage and in British television. American viewers first noticed him as the lead in the original British miniseries of Dennis Potter’s “Pennies from Heaven.” Hoskins made his motion picture debut in John Byrum’s “Inserts” in 1975, but his breakthrough was in Neil Jordan’s “Mona Lisa” (1987). For that film he received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor, and won a BAFTA award, a Golden Globe, a Cannes Film Festival award, and awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics, the London Film Critics, the New York Film Critics, and the National Society of Film Critics.

Most recently, Hoskins received both a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a British Independent Spirit Awards nomination for Best Actor for his work opposite Dame Judi Dench in “Mrs. Henderson Presents.”

Hoskins has also starred as two 20th-century dictators in the TV miniseries “Noriega: God’s Favorite” and “Mussolini: Decline and Fall of Il Duce,” as well as Winston Churchill in the CBS live broadcast television movie “World War II: When Lions Roared.”

He directed himself in the film “Rainbow,” and wrote, directed and starred in “The Raggedy Rawney.” He also produced and starred in the 1996 film “Secret Agent,” based on the novel by Joseph Conrad.

His extensive filmography includes “The Long Good Friday,” “Brazil,” “A Prayer for the Dying,” “The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne,” “Shattered,” “Hook,” “The Inner Circle,” “Michael,” “24 7: Twenty Four Seven,” “Cousin Bette,” “Felicia’s Journey,” “Enemy at the Gates,” “The Last Orders,” “Vanity Fair,” “Beyond the Sea,” “Stay,” “Elizabeth Rex,” and “Unleashed.”

ROBIN WRIGHT PENN (Belle, Fan) made her premiere debut in Rob Reiner’s cult classic “The Princess Bride” and has since become one of cinema’s most acclaimed actresses.

Wright Penn will next be seen in “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” opposite Julianne Moore, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves and Blake Lively. The film premiered at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival and will be released in the US in November 2009.

Wright Penn has received kudos for her outstanding performances over the years. She was recently honored with a career tribute at the 35th Annual Deauville Festival of American Cinema. Her first two nominations, a Golden Globe® and Screen Actors Guild Award® for Best Supporting Actress, came in 1995 for her unforgettable role as Jenny in Robert Zemeckis’ Best Picture Oscar® winner “Forrest Gump.” Wright Penn earned her second Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Lead Actress in Nick Cassavetes’ “She’s So Lovely,” and her third nomination for Best Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries in Fred Schepisi’s “Empire Falls.” She has received three Independent Spirit nominations for her performances in Erin Dignam’s “Loved,” Rodrigo Garcia’s “Nine Lives,” and Jeff Stanzler’s “Sorry, Haters.” Additionally, Wright Penn starred in and served as an executive producer on Deborah Kampmeier’s “Virgin,” which received an Independent Spirit nomination for Best First Feature, also known as the John Cassavetes Award.

Other film credits include Barry Levinson’s “What Just Happened” and Deborah Kampmeier’s “Hounddog,” which Wright Penn also executive produced; Kevin Macdonald’s “State of Play,” Anthony Minghella’s “Breaking and Entering,” Robert Zemeckis’ “Beowulf,” Keith Gordon’s “The Singing Detective,” Peter Kosminsky’s “White Oleander,” Anthony Drazan’s “Hurlyburly,” Sean Penn’s “The Pledge,” Luis Mandoki’s “Message in a Bottle,” M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable,” Pen Densham’s “Moll Flanders,” Barry Levinson’s

“Toys,” and “Room 10” for Glamour magazine’s Reel Women Film Series.

FIONNULA FLANAGAN (Mrs. Dilber) is an award-winning star of stage and screen. She most recently appeared alongside Jim Carrey in the hit comedy “Yes Man.” Flanagan’s other upcoming feature films include “The Irishman,” with Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken, and “Coming and Going,” with Rhys Darby.

Flanagan’s other feature film credits include “Transamerica,” for which she was awarded the Irish Film and Television Academy Award (IFTA) for Best Supporting Actress; “Four Brothers”; “The Others,” for which she won a Golden Saturn Award; “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”; “Waking Ned Devine,” for which she shared a Screen Actors Guild Award® outstanding cast nomination; “Some Mother’s Son”; “Mad at the Moon”; and “Ulysses.” She also starred in the Academy Award®-winning short film “In the Region of Ice.”

The Dublin-born Flanagan has made her mark on the small screen as well, winning an Emmy Award® for her performance in the acclaimed miniseries “Rich Man, Poor Man,” and a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in the series “How the West Was Won.” She has also received IFTA nominations for her work on the Irish-language series “Paddywhackery” and on the Peabody Award-winning “Brotherhood,” for which she also won a Satellite Award from the International Press Academy. Flanagan also starred in the series “To Have & to Hold,” and appeared in a recurring role on the hugely popular series “Lost.”

For her one-woman stage performance of “James Joyce’s Women,” Flanagan received the Los Angeles Critics’ Award, the San Francisco Critics’ Award and a Dramalogue Award. She also wrote, adapted and produced the piece for the stage and subsequently produced and starred in the feature film adaptation. In addition, she has an extensive list of Broadway appearances to her name, most notably as Molly Bloom in “Ulysses in Nighttown,” based on the Joyce epic, for which she earned a Tony Award® nomination. Adding to her list of honors, Flanagan was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the National University of Ireland at Galway for her contribution to the world of fine arts.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

ROBERT ZEMECKIS (Director, Producer, Screenwriter) won an Academy Award®, a Golden Globe® and a Director’s Guild of America Award for Best Director for the hugely successful “Forrest Gump.” The film’s numerous honors also included Oscars® for Best Actor (Tom Hanks) and Best Picture. Zemeckis re-teamed with Hanks on the contemporary drama “Cast Away,” the filming of which was split into two sections, book-ending production on “What Lies Beneath.” Zemeckis and Hanks served as producers on “Cast Away,” along with Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke.

ImageMovers partners Zemeckis, Starkey and Rapke recently formed ImageMovers Digital to focus on performance-capture films for The Walt Disney Studios. The initiative furthers the technology they pioneered in the Zemeckis-directed films “The Polar Express” and “Beowulf,” and the Gil Kenan-directed film “Monster House.”

Earlier in his career, Zemeckis co-wrote (with Bob Gale) and directed “Back to the Future,” which was the top-grossing release of 1985, and for which Zemeckis shared Oscar® and Golden Globe® nominations for Best Original Screenplay. He then went on to helm “Back to the Future” Part II and Part III, completing one of the most successful film franchises ever.

In addition, he directed and produced “Contact,” starring Jodie Foster, based on the best-selling novel by Carl Sagan; and the macabre comedy hit “Death Becomes Her,” starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis. He also wrote and directed the box-office smash “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” cleverly blending live action and animation; directed the romantic-adventure hit “Romancing the Stone,” pairing Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner; and co-wrote (with Bob Gale) and directed the comedies “Used Cars” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”

Zemeckis also produced “House on Haunted Hill,” and executive produced such films as “The Frighteners,” “The Public Eye” and “Trespass,” which he also co-wrote with Bob Gale. He and Gale previously wrote “1914,” which began Zemeckis’ association with Steven Spielberg.

For the small screen, Zemeckis has directed several projects, including the Showtime feature-length documentary “The Pursuit of Happiness,” which explored the effect of drugs and alcohol on 20th-century society. His additional television credits include episodes of Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories” and HBO’s “Tales from the Crypt.”

In 1998, Zemeckis, Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke partnered to form the film and television production company ImageMovers. “What Lies Beneath” was the first film to be released under the ImageMovers banner, followed by “Cast Away,” which opened to critical and audience acclaim in the fall of 2000, and “Matchstick Men.”

In March 2001, the USC School of Cinema-Television celebrated the opening of the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts. This state-of-the-art center is the country’s first and only fully digital training center and houses the latest in non-linear production and post-production equipment as well as stages, a 50-seat screening room and USC student-run television station, Trojan Vision.

In 2004, Zemeckis produced and directed the motion capture film “The Polar Express,” starring Tom Hanks. Most recently, he brought the true life story of “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio” starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson to the big screen. In addition, he served as executive producer on both “Monster House” and the Queen Latifah comedy “Last Holiday.”

Zemeckis produced and directed his second motion-capture film “Beowulf,” which was also produced by Rapke and Starkey. The feature, which stars Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie and Ray Winstone, is based on one of the oldest surviving pieces of Anglo-Saxon literature, written sometime before the 10th Century A.D.

STEVE STARKEY (Producer) earned an Academy Award® as one of the producers of Best Picture winner “Forrest Gump.” The film, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, became one of the highest grossing movies of all time and collected six Oscars®, including Best Director and Best Actor, as well as a Golden Globe Award®, the National Board of Review’s highest honor in 1994, two People’s Choice Awards, the Producers Guild Golden Laurel Award and Best Picture BAFTA nomination.

Starkey, along with Zemeckis and Jack Rapke, recently formed ImageMovers Digital, an extension of their 1998-established ImageMovers. The new effort allows the partners to focus on performance-capture films for The Walt Disney Studios, building on the technology they pioneered in the Zemeckis-directed films “The Polar Express” and “Beowulf,” and the Gil Kenan-directed film “Monster House”—all films on which Starkey served as producer.

Starkey’s ImageMovers’ producer credits with director Robert Zemeckis include the epic drama “Cast Away,” which re-teamed them with Tom Hanks, and the psychological thriller “What Lies Beneath” with Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Starkey produced “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” directed by Jane Anderson and starring Julianne Moore, and was also a producer on “Matchstick Men,” directed by Ridley Scott and starring Nicolas Cage.

Starkey’s professional association with Zemeckis began in 1986 when he was associate producer on the innovative feature “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and went on to serve as associate producer on the second and third installments of the “Back to the Future” trilogy. Their collaboration continued as Starkey and Zemeckis produced the black comedy “Death Becomes Her,” followed by “Forrest Gump” and “Contact.” Starkey also co-produced the feature comedy farce “Noises Off” and produced the Showtime feature-length documentary “The Pursuit of Happiness,” exploring drug and alcohol addiction, which was directed and executive produced by Robert Zemeckis.

Early in his career, Starkey worked with George Lucas at Lucasfilm, Ltd., where he became an assistant film editor on “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.” He later edited documentary films for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, was associate producer of Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories” television anthology series, and was executive producer on the 1993 CBS series “Johnny Bago.” Starkey served as executive producer on the 2006 film “Last Holiday,” starring Queen Latifah and directed by Wayne Wang.

JACK RAPKE’s (Producer) road to president of ImageMovers Digital began when the graduate of NYU film school moved to Los Angeles in 1975 to work in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency. Only four years later, the tenacious Rapke joined Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where he rose to become one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood over the course of the next seventeen years.

During his seven-year tenure as co-chairman of CAA’s motion picture department, Rapke cultivated a high-profile client list that included Jerry Bruckheimer, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, Harold Ramis, Michael Bay, Terry Gilliam, Bob Gale, Bo Goldman, Steve Kloves, Howard Franklin, Scott Frank, Robert Kamen, John Hughes, Joel Schumacher, Marty Brest, Chris Columbus, Ezra Sacks, and Imagine Entertainment partners Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Instrumental in building production companies around his clients, it was only a matter of time before he decided to build one of his own with client Robert Zemeckis.

In 1998, Rapke departed CAA to form ImageMovers with Zemeckis and producing partner Steve Starkey. Primarily focused on theatrical motion pictures, the company’s first feature was the critically acclaimed “Cast Away,” directed by Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks. Rapke and partners went on to produce numerous hits including Zemeckis’ thriller “What Lies Beneath” starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, the Ridley Scott-directed “Matchstick Men” starring Nicolas Cage, “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson, and “Last Holiday,” starring Queen Latifah.

After Zemeckis embraced a revolutionary new technology called performance capture in 2004’s “The Polar Express,” and Rapke and partners produced two more films utilizing the technique—2006’s Oscar-nominated “Monster House” and the Zemeckis-directed “Beowulf”—Zemeckis, Starkey and Rapke formed ImageMovers Digital, the first state-of-the-art studio devoted entirely to the new performance capture art form.

Academy Award®-winning artist, production designer, and author DOUG CHIANG (Production Designer) began his expansive career as a stop motion animator on the “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” TV series soon after studying film at UCLA. Before long, he rose to become a Clio Award-winning commercial director and designer for Rhythm and Hues, Digital Productions, and Robert Abel and Associates. At Industrial Light and Magic, where he became the creative director in 1993, he built his filmography as visual effects art director on such blockbusters as “Terminator 2,” “Ghost,” “The Doors,” “The Mask,” and Robert Zemeckis’ “Forrest Gump” and “Death Becomes Her” (for which Chiang earned his Oscar® and second British Academy Award), thus beginning a long and fruitful collaboration.

In 1995 Chiang moved to Lucasfilm, Ltd. to work as design director on the first two of the three “Star Wars” prequels before forming IceBlink Studios, his Marin County film-design studio, where he cemented his relationship with Zemeckis and their commitment to performance-capture motion pictures. From 2002 to 2007, he has served as Production Designer on the Zemeckis-directed films “The Polar Express” and “Beowulf,”

Fights at the market

2009-11-11T22:55:00.002-08:00

       Two Cambodians got into a fistfight at a market in the border town of Poi Pet yesterday morning over ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra being appointed as economic advisor to Hun Sen.
       "One man supports Hun Sen's decision but the other man believes Thaksin's appointment would only strain ties between Thailand and Cambodia," Chua Dee, a 35-year-old Cambodian who sells second-hand shoes in the Rong Klua market on the Thai side, said about the fistfight yesterday.
       "If the border checkpoints are closed because of Thaksin's appointment, then many Cambodians will definitely be against him," he added.
       Still, it was business as usual at the Rong Klua market yesterday, and Sa Kaew Governor Sanit Naksuksri said the market's total sales were well above Bt20-million every day.
       "Closing the border will not be good for trade and export," he warned.
       Thousands of Cambodians walk into Thailand via the Ban Khlong Luek checkpoint in Sa Kaew's Aranyaprathet district every day and were doing so yesterday as well.
       However, a lecturer at the Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University believes the Thai government should take a harder stance against Cambodia.
       "The government should consider whether it's time to close the borders. Businessmen should understand that the country's sovereignty comes first.
       The government should also decide if Cambodian workers should be allowed to stay in Thailand," Samart Jabjone said.
       Samart, who chairs a network of Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University lecturers and students, said he would be joining the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) rally in Sanam Luang on Sunday.
       "Regardless of the colour of our shirts, we will be there to declare our intention to protect Thailand's national interests," he said.
       On the other hand, a Thai tour operator complained that the souring of ties between the two nations had already cost her a few million baht in lost opportunities.
       "At least 80 of my customers have cancelled their trips to Cambodia," Duangrudee Apapon, owner of the Avia Angker Travel Company, said, adding that tour guides and tour-bus operators were also feeling the pinch.
       "Those not living near the border may not understand our plight, but we are really hurting," Duangrudee said.

Magnificent seven

2009-11-11T22:55:00.001-08:00

       In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
       Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
       Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
       Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
       Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
       The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
       The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
       Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
       The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
       The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.

PHEU THAI'S NEW RECRUITS IMPRESS FEW

2009-10-21T00:48:00.000-07:00

       Although the Pheu Thai Party is hyping up some 20 new party members as a political scoop to signal dissension within the military's ranks, political observers point out these ex-soldiers-turned-politicians have never been a major voice of the military. The 20 may have been classmates of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra from Pre-Cadet Class 10, but Thaksin often treated them with indifference and chose to dispense favours only to those classmates with clout when he was in power.
       The observers say of the 20 new Pheu Thai members, only three can be counted as 'somebody'- Manas Paorik, former deputy commander of the Third Army Region; Jirasit Kesakomol, former commander of the First Army Corps and Sumeth Phomanee, retired Air Force officer and former chief of staff to the defence minister.
       Sumeth served last year under Samak Sundaravej when he held the concurrent positions of prime minister and defence minister. "We decided to join Pheu Thai because of its practical policies to improve on the people's livelihood," he said.
       All 20 Pheu Thai newcomers are military retirees.
       The clique of Pre-Cadet Class 10, seen as pro-Thaksin, held a reunion dinner on Monday and Thaksin phoned-in to greet his classmates and thank them for their support. But his call failed apparently to convince the 'stars' of the class to join Pheu Thai.
       General Pornchai Kranlert, once a Thaksin favourite for the position of Army chief, and Lt General Prin Suwanthat, once powerful commander of the First Army Division, begged for more time to form a decision.
       More than 80 per cent of Thaksin's classmates failed to show up for the dinner. The no-shows are apparently linked to a clique led by Army chief General Anupong Paochinda.
       Even though most of Class 10 have been sidelined since the 2006 coup, Anupong has made sure those distancing themselves from Thaksin had their ranks elevated before retirement.
       Yesterday Yongyuth hosted a luncheon for his new party members, billed to number more than 40 although 20 showed up.
       Sumeth admitted that Thaksin had convinced the old classmates to support him by joining the party, but
       dismissed concern about Class 10 being seen as taking the opposite side to chief royal adviser General Prem Tinsulanonda.
       "We are retired officers and once out of military service, we are like other civilians who can choose to join a political party," he said.
       Veteran Pheu Thai member General Panlop Pinmanee said Prem had no right to monopolise patriotism by putting Pheu Thai members in a bad light.
       Pheu Thai newcomer Amnuay Thirachunha said he expected the political mercury to rise after Class 10's teaming up with the opposition.
       He claimed more than 50 graduates from Class 10 would eventually adopt the Pheu Thai banner, although some key graduates like General Pornchai Kranlert had not shown up.
       He also dismissed speculation about a rift between his clique and class president and Army chief General Anupong Paochinda.
       "We focus on our common ground and not our differences, he said.

PAIN AND PENNY-PINCHING TO COME IN UK

2009-10-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

       It's the deficit, stupid. That was the message, though not in exactly those words, that George Osborne,the ambitious finance ministerin-waiting for the UK's Conservative Party, delivered to the Tory faithful last week as he warned of Britain's mushrooming debt burden.
       "The government borrowed too much, the banks borrowed too much,"he said in a long-awaited speech at the party conference setting out the Conservative agenda going into next spring's election against the Labour government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown."Let's tell the truth: We all borrowed too much. We are sinking in a sea of debt."
       It is rare for a major party anywhere to run for office on a platform of pain and penny-pinching. But Mr Osborne and his fellow Tories, in adapting a variation of the slogan that carried Bill Clinton to victory in 1992, are betting that voters will not just accept a dose of harsh medicine, but will actually appreciate his honesty in offering it.
       Mr Osborne has even gone against a core Tory constituency, the wealthy financiers who fill the offices in the City of London, by saying that he will not reduce the top 50% tax rate recently imposed by Labour on Britain's richest.
       "We have to show that we are fair to all parts of society," Mr Osborne said in an interview in Manchester."It would be impossible to cut taxes now while we are asking others to sacrifice so much."
       It is a cheeky, unproven strategy.Republicans in the United States are also focusing on the country's similarly large deficit, forecast at 12.3% of gross domestic product this year, the highest since World War Two. So the extent to which Mr Osborne can persuade the British public to embrace a programme of reduced social services and public-sector wage freezes - without base-rallying tax cuts - may serve as a model for a 2012 campaign against President Barack Obama.
       At the moment, because of the sharp economic recession there and widespread disenchantment with the Labour Party, the Conservatives are far ahead in the polls. They are widely expected to return to power after more than a decade out of office.
       But that may be the easy part. As Mr Osborne made clear in his speech,Britain, whose currency in recent months has taken a beating even worse than the dollar has, is expected to generate a deficit of 13% of GDP this year,with its government debt forecast to reach 100% of GDP by 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund.
       By comparison, the debt burden in the United States is forecast to increase to 66%, from about 40%, over the same period, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
       Just last week, the European Commission termed Britain's debt "unsustainable" in a devastating report that compared public finances there with those of countries like Ireland, Latvia,Lithuania and Romania.
       According to the report, which has been latched on to by the Conservatives as a further sign of Britain's economic decline, the government needs to find ฃ200 billion.
       Mr Osborne, in setting out the Conservative fiscal agenda, is playing bad cop to the good cop role of David Cameron, the Tory leader. And with his penchant for delivering bad news with little sugar-coating, it is no surprise that Mr Osborne, who is only 38, almost proudly confesses that he is looking forward to being the most reviled man in Britain.
       "You have to be honest with people,"Mr Osborne said in the interview."There is so much distrust in the system that I believe there is a premium on straight talking."
       Mr Osborne, though, is not a naturally gifted political salesman. Indeed,while his Tory colleagues were inclined to push into the conference crowd, he tended to keep his distance. And on television, he often projects the clammy, awkward persona of a schoolboy making his first speech.
       Mr Cameron, who is close to Mr Osborne and comes from a similar background, has transcended the ignominy of his membership in the Bullingdon Club, the elite drinking enclave at Oxford. By contrast, Mr Osborne seems far less removed from the haughty picture of himself and his club members, garbed in bow ties and tails,that has come to define the view that the recast Conservatives still lack a common touch.
       What Mr Osborne does not lack,however, is what even his toughest critics recognise as an acute sense of how to play for keeps in the rough and tumble sandpit of British politics that is at odds with his aristocratic demeanor.
       The first of his political calculations came during his early teenage years when he had his name legally changed from Gideon to George, explaining to a schoolmate at the time that one could not become prime minister with a name like Gideon.
       But it is the more recent gamble persuading Mr Cameron that the Tories must relentlessly attack Mr Brown on Britain's debt - that will most likely define him and the Conservative Party,for better or for worse.
       It has left him open to plenty of personal attacks from the party in power.
       "Cutting spending at the height of a recession - I have never heard of such nonsense," said Peter Mandelson,the business secretary, who has been a senior strategist to Mr Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair."This is not an economic philosophy; it is crude objectionism."
       Even in the financial district, concerns have been raised that Mr Osborne is too doctrinaire.
       "He comes across as callow and rich," said Andrew Hilton, who runs CSFI, a research center focused on financial issues."The City wants Labour out, but there is trepidation. If we cut spending right now it would be a lot worse."
       At a luncheon for Tory business supporters, Mr Osborne struck a more relaxed tone. But his main focus was the same.
       Britain's deficit "is a clear and present threat; we have to deal with it", he said. Acknowledging the tough measures he laid out during his speech and the criticism that followed, he added:"You have to bring the public with you. To get elected on a false prospectus would be catastrophic. All this will help ensure a democratic mandate."
       To meet his goals, Mr Osborne will have to rely on financial institutions in London and abroad (close to 40%of Britain's debt is held by foreigners)to keep buying government bonds at reasonable interest rates.
       "Osborne is dealing with the hard realities," said Michael Hintze, a prominent Tory financial supporter and founder of the hedge fund CQS, who suggested that Mr Osborne would bring a much-needed business sensibility to the challenges facing the British government."It is a UK PLC issue at this point. You can't just keep spending."

Karzai's rival "softens" stance

2009-10-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

       Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main election challenger on Monday opened the door to working with his rival in a unity government,softening his opposition to future collaboration with the incumbent.
       Abdullah Abdullah, 49, who served as Mr Karzai's foreign minister from 2001 to 2006, said that when the result of the Aug 20 vote was known it was possible to "talk about different scenarios".
       "At this stage my whole focus will be on the [electoral] process, yes, to get it right and get it on track so the outcome will be acceptable to the people of Afghanistan," said Mr Abdullah.
       "Post announcement [of the result]there will be a new environment."
       Mr Abdullah has in the past ruled out returning to a Karzai government, but suggested his stance could soften after the election result is announced. Asked if he still ruled it out, he replied:"At the moment that is my position."
       When asked if that position could change, he responded:"Take it as it is,but different ideas and different scenarios could be talked about in their context rather than the context of today's situation where we have to focus on the [election] process."
       Hundreds of ballot boxes are still being checked for cheating, nearly two months after Afghans trudged to the polls. The vote was widely condemned as highly fraudulent and state bodies systematically acted to favour Mr Karzai, says Mr Abdullah.
       Rows have erupted over how the fraud can be corrected. Mr Abdullah said he was satisfied with the election watchdog's procedures and remained convinced it would declare sufficient votes invalid to require a run-off round between him and Mr Karzai.
       "It looks like it will be impossible for him to win [in the first round]," said Mr Abdullah, an urbane, fluent Englishspeaking eye doctor."Fraud will not be ignored."
       Mr Karzai won a preliminary 54.6%of the vote, to Mr Abdullah's 27.8%.Around one million of the 5.66 million votes cast would have to be found fraudulent to push Mr Karzai below the 50%level needed to trigger a second round.
       Mr Abdullah said the next government needs to reclaim the legitimacy lost to fraud and misrule under Mr Karzai, giving Western powers the "credible" partner they must have to justify the money and troops sent to stabilise Afghanistan.
       Setting out his conditions for cooperation, Mr Abdullah said he wanted a government formed that would have "an agenda of change", be staffed on the basis of competence rather than personal loyalty and have a clear vision for the country.
       In the fierce pre-vote battle for allegiances, Mr Karzai secured the backing of ethnic chiefs and ex-warlords, some with notorious human rights records.
       Mr Abdullah said Mr Karzai had effectively offered government posts in return for votes, which would frustrate the government's Western backers who want competent technocrats rather than corrupt loyalists in senior positions.
       "It's a clear-cut deal - ministries,authorities in exchange for votes,regardless of the issues of good governance, competence and effectiveness," said Mr Abdullah.
       Meanwhile Mr Abdullah's campaign manager, Saleh Mohammad Registani,said Mr Karzai engineered this week's resignation of a chief fraud investigator to cast doubt over a process that may force a run-off vote.
       One of the two Afghans on the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), Maulavi Mustafa Barakzai, resigned on Monday because, he said, the three foreigners on the panel were making all decisions on their own."Barakzai's resignation has direct connection to Karzai. It was Karzai's idea," Mr Registani said."Karzai is trying to bring the work of the ECC into question."

Poll shows Labour lags far behind

2009-10-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

       Britain's opposition Conservatives remain on course for a return to power following the annual party conference season, an ICM Poll for the News of the World Sunday newspaper said.Support for the centre-right Conservatives stands at 45%,19 points ahead of Labour, and enough to give them a strong majority in parliament in an election due by next June. The Liberal Democrats are in third place with 18%.
       The Conservatives have extended their lead by five points since the previous ICM poll, taken two weeks ago before Labour held its annual conference.
       The conferences give the main parties huge media exposure and were seen as the starting point for election campaigns.
       The Conservatives warned at their conference that they would cut spending in order to reduce a huge budget deficit,outlining plans for a freeze on public sector pay beginning in 2011 and to raise the age at which people can get their state pension.
       A rapid recovery from deep recession is seen as the only chance of salvation for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Labour party, in power since 1997.
       Mr Brown said in a podcast on Saturday that action taken by the government,including spending billions of pounds on bailing out banks, had prevented the recession from tipping into a depression.
       "I believe that we have reached only the half way point on the road to rebuilding the global economy," he said.
       Mr Brown said he would give more details about how he plans to ensure the economy will grow in an enduring and sustainable way.
       The Labour PM, who has faced media questions in recent weeks over his health and eyesight, has two minor tears in his retina but will not require surgery, his office said on Saturday.
       Mr Brown, who lost the sight in one eye following a rugby injury as a teenager,has repeatedly said he is fit enough to lead he country.
       The ICM Research poll interviewed 1,008 adults on Oct 7-8.

ALL EYES ON WHICH WAY NEW POLITICS WILL GO

2009-10-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

       A new party, led by Sondhi Limthongkul, has further blurred the confused political landscape The increasingly sour relationship between the Democrat Party and the People's Alliance for Democracy, which has transformed itself into a political party and thus the most direct competitor of the main government coalition partner, will further complicate Thai politics. The landscape already looks blurred, with both camps taking opposite stances on proposed constitutional amendments. What will dictate future developments, however, depends less on the Democrats than on how far the PAD decides to go to push its causes.
       The most significant development of late is not PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul's bashing of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whom he described as ungrateful, but the PAD's threat to resume street protests to protect the Constitution. Since the PAD has founded the New Politics Party, thus committing itself to mainstream parliamentary politics, we have to wonder how this movement will manage to have the best of both worlds.
       Political parties are entitled to organise rallies, but obviously not the sort of rallies the PAD was known for. Sondhi, the extremist credited for so many changes - positive and negative - that have happened in Thailand over the past few years, will have found that his new role requires a balancing act. He used to deplore parliamentary democracy, but what will he do now after deciding to become a part of it?
       In an exclusive interview with The Nation on Friday, Sondhi vigorously defended the fact that the New Politics Party would be backed up by a |political movement remembered for its long occupation of Government House and seizure of Suvarnabhumi Airport. "New politics", he insisted, meant a truly "bottom-up" formation of a political party. No party had |ever been formed this way, starting as a political movement and then, |thanks to a solid consensus of its followers, evolving into a political party, |he said.
       That arguably noble transformation, however, has to be followed by a reform of how the PAD puts forth its agenda. And having closely identified the PAD with the New Politics Party, admitting that the former has evolved into the latter, it will be hard for Sondhi to distance himself from the PAD if, say, its members stage another controversial act of aggression.
       Another part of the intriguing backdrop is the red shirts, the political base of the Pheu Thai Party. Ironically, the rival camps - the red shirts and yellow shirts - are finding themselves in the same boat because both are reluctant participants in the current parliamentary democracy. The yellow shirts believe the present parliamentary democracy is not strong enough to guard against Thaksin Shinawatra, but their red rivals think the opposite, claiming that Thaksin's opponents have taken the existing system and twisted it so as to block him from returning to power.
       How Sondhi with a new hat can fit into this increasingly complex picture remains to be seen. Logically speaking, he will be forced to be more cool-headed and take the middle path in order to get things done. If he can change, so can his supporters. If he cannot, it is very doubtful the New Politics Party will be able to set the ball rolling for a new political course that everyone yearns for.

ACADEMIC WARNS OF BLOODBATH IF SOCIAL RIFT NOT HEALED

2009-10-08T22:49:00.000-07:00

       A respected academic warned yesterday that a chronic social division could eventually lead to a clash and bloodbath if no attempts were made to avert it.
       Nidhi Eoseewong, a profesor in history,said that the problem has become "deep-rooted" after 20 years of social division, not just the three past years as had been believed.
       He said the problem of unbalanced society began since the time of King Rama V more than a century ago. The on going social division does not involve only the elite, the middle class and the grassroots, as in the past, but also a lare portion of the lowest group that has become a lower middle class both in the rural and urban adreas.
       "This group of people want more participation in public policy-making. In the future, these people will demand not only political equality but also othe rthings, which will cause furthe rstress in society. And I am not sure if the middle class will be able to accept it," Nidhi said.
       Some observers say Thai society has become severely divided over the past three years folsowing the 2006 military coup that overthrew the government of Thaksin Shinawatra.
       Nidhi was speaking during an academic meeting entitled "A Balanced Path for the Thai Ecomy,Politics and Society", at the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University.
       He said that a "terrifying spectre" would be unnecessary and unreasonable bloodshed. "Are we going to prevent that from happening? Thai people will kill each other unreasonably. What to be done now is to reduce factors that can lead to bloodbath in the short and long terms," Nidhi said.
       In the short term, he suggested a stronger system of political scrutiny to give the people more power to scrutinise politicians, in addition to allowing more freedom of expression.
       He expressed opposition against issuing a law to regulate public gatherings.
       In the long term, he said a genuine rule of law and a welfare state should be established to provide security for the lower middle-class people.
       Another panel speaker Vishanu Kruea-ngam, who is formerly secretary-general to the Cabinet,said that Thai society shouls adopt His Majesty the King's philosophy of sufficiency economy to maintain social equilibrium.
       "There should be no extremes, no surplus and no shortage. The philosonable way," he said.
       Pisit Lee-ahtham,formerly a deputy finance minister, told yesterday's Sasin meeting that the government should spend more money on social projects in order to build up security for people in the middle and lower tiers of society.

Roxas aligns himself behind Aquino's bid for president

2009-09-23T00:31:00.000-07:00

       A Philippine opposition senator formally agreed yesterday to be the running mate of the son of late leader Corazon Aquino in next year's presidential election.
       Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III declared his candidacy two weeks ago, saying he will run for president to continue the legacy of his mother, a democracy icon for standing up to dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
       At a gathering yesterday of Liberal Party members and allies, Mr Aquino thanked Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, the party president, for foregoing his own presidential bid to be his running mate.
       Both men come from wealthy clans with a long history in Philippine politics.
       Mr Roxas is a former trade secretary,a US-trained economist and grandson of late Philippines president Manuel Roxas.
       "I wholeheartedly accept the responsibility of being Noynoy's partner in his fight for change," Mr Roxas told a cheering crowd."Thank you for the privilege of joining you and all our countrymen in the fight for decency and integrity in public service."
       President Gloria Arroyo, who lost the support of the Aquinos and former cabinet officials like Mr Roxas over charges of corruption and election fraud, is scheduled to step down after serving more than nine years in June 2010. She is not allowed to run for re-election.
       The massive outpouring of sympathy for Corazon Aquino after her death from colon cancer last month prompted supporters of her son to urge Noynoy to run for president in the May 2010 election.
       Despite a patchy record during her six years in office, Corazon Aquino remains a well-loved figure and is credited with restoring democratic institutions after Marcos'20 years of dictatorship.She became a focal point for opposition to Marcos after her husband, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr, was assassinated after returning from exile in 1983.Military kills Abu Sayyaf rebels
       The Philippine military killed up to 17 Islamist extremists as it over-ran one of their main strongholds in the south of the country, a general said yesterday.
       Following ground and air assaults,the soldiers took control of the Abu Sayyaf group's biggest camp on the island of Jolo on Sunday, said Major General Benjamin Dolorfino, head of military forces in the south.
       The military recovered the bodies of two Abu Sayyaf fighters, according to Gen Dolorfino. But intelligence reports suggest 17 rebel deaths, he added.
       "This is very significant, because this is their main sanctuary. This is the main stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf [on Jolo],"Gen Dolorfino said."We will build a detachment there so that their world will get even smaller."

Prasopsuk backs PM on charter

2009-09-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

       Senate Speaker Prasopsuk Boondej has voiced support for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's suggestion for former constitution drafters and academics to be recruited to vet the proposed six-point rewrite of the charter.
       Mr Prasopsuk said the participation of the former members of two constitution drafting assemblies would ensure public input in the charter rewrite process.
       He said the charter amendments could be completed within a few months if the government was serious about it.
       A special parliamentary meeting could then be convened to screen the amendments when the House goes into recess in November, he said.
       However, the speaker said it would be time-consuming if the amended constitution was put up for a referendum.There is no law governing a referendum on a new charter.
       He said legislation could be sped up and completed within two months if the public wanted a referendum.
       On Sunday, Mr Abhisit floated the idea of forming a fresh constitution drafting assembly to handle changes to the charter and the holding of a referendum.
       He said the assembly should be made up of members of parliament, those who drew up the 1997 and present 2007 constitutions, scholars and experts.
       Government chief whip Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said the government whips would discuss charter amendments with the opposition and the senate whips tomorrow to reach an agreement before Mr Abhisit's return from overseas.
       He said the charter rewrite should not take more than six months.
       But Puea Thai Party MP Surapong Towihcakchaikul yesterday shot down the prime minister's proposed new charter drafting assembly suggestion.
       He said the party would support only the six points offered by the charter reform and national reconciliation committee.

Newin among 44 cleared in graft case

2009-09-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

       The Supreme Court has acquitted political playmaker Newin Chidchob and 43 others of corruption and malfeasance charges in a 1.44-billion baht rubber sapling procurement deal.
       The court also cleared the 44 defendants of the 1.3 billion baht compensation for alleged damage to the state from the projects claimed by the plaintiff, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) on behalf of the 2006 coup-appointed Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC).
       The case, investigated by the ASC,mainly centred on unlawful approvals for the use of state funds and collusion among bidders.
       The project was initiated in 2003 by Mr Newin, then deputy agriculture and cooperatives minister under the Thaksin Shinawatra government, and Chakan Saengraksawong, then director-general of Department of Agriculture (DOA).
       The court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions cleared Mr Newin with 8:1 votes and Mr Chakan with 7:2 votes of wrongdoing for proposing a new line of financial sourcing by allocating funds from the Farmers Aid Fund to purchase 90 million rubber saplings for farmers in 36 northeastern and northern provinces.
       "They only followed the then government's policy to improve infrastructure in the agriculture sector," one of the nine judges said.
       Mr Newin appeared relieved after the two and a half hour reading of the verdicts, rushing to hug other former ministers.
       The Buri Ram politician told reporters that he believed the disputed project would eventually bring about profits to farmers engaging in it over the next two years.
       "I have only one thing left to do that is to do every thing to protect the monarchy," said a tearful Mr Newin.
       Key Bhumjaithai politicians including Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul and Deputy Interior Minister Boonjong Wongtrairat attended the hearing.
       Banned politician Sora-at Klinprathum, under the Bhumjaithai wing,is among other four former ministers and state officials cleared of wrongdoing. In their capacity as panel members of the Farmers Aid Fund, they approved the fund's budget allocation.
       The ASC charged that rubber plants did not qualify for the Farmers Aid Fund's funding, but the court found otherwise.
       Other former cabinet members cleared of all charges include former deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak, former deputy finance minister Varathep Ratanakorn, and former commerce minister Adisai Bodharamik.
       Mr Adisai, who did not show up during the first scheduled hearing on Aug 17 and forced the court to postpone it, failed to attend the session. He earlier told the court he was receiving medical treatment in the United States.
       After the ruling, the court also revoked an arrest warrant earlier issued to Mr Adisai for his absence.
       The court also acquitted state officials and three sapling supplier companies of criminal charges involving collusion in the bidding.
       Using criminal offences, the ASC accused the 44 defendants of malfeasance and causing damage to the state in connection with the project.
       The Office of the Attorney-General did not accept the panel's case submitted by the ASC, saying it was "incomplete". But the ASC insisted on going ahead with it.
       ASC member Kaewsun Atibhodhi said he accepted the ruling of the Supreme Court and believed in the politics-free trial and all the nine senior judges handling the case.
       Mr Kaewsun said the ASC had not tried to unfairly treat any defendants in the case but had taken action in line with the evidence.
       "I don't think there will be a counter lawsuit from any acquitted defendant.The court acquitted them because of different legal viewpoints," he said.
       Prompong Nopparit, spokesman for the Puea Thai Party, said the court's ruling judged the ASC's credibility.

       THE VERDICT
       DEFENDANTS: Former deputy agriculture and cooperativers minister Newin Chidchob and former department of agriculture chief Chakan Saengraksawong.
       CHARGES: Violations of laws and regulations for initiating the sapling project and for proposing that financing be allocated from the Farmers Aid Fund (FAF) and repayments be made by the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund (RRAF).
       VERDICT: Not guilty. The defendants acted in line with government policy.
       ..............................................................................................
       DEFENDANTS: 17 members of the FAF comprising state officials and four ministers-former deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak, former agriculture and cooperatives minister Sora-at Klinprathum, former commerce minister Adisai Bodharamik and former deputy finance minister Varathep Rattanakorn
       CHARGES: Unlawful approval of the use of the FAF's budget for investment and the RRAF's revenue for repayment ot the former.
       VERDICT: Not guilty. The decisions werre lawful.
       ..............................................................................................
       DEFENDANTS: Eight state officials overseeing the bidding process.
       CHARGES: Wrongfully setting up bidding conditions to help certain bidders, and negligence investigating collusion and shared interests among bidders.
       VERDICT: Not guilty. No evidence suggested their wrongdoing. The defendants checked bidders' documents correctly as required.
       ..............................................................................................
       DEFENDANTS: Bid winner Charoen Pokphand Seeds (CPS) and two other bidders
       CHARGES: Bidding collusion by submitting false documents on their credentials and acquisition of sufficient rubber planting areas to help CPS win the deal. The three companies shared business interest and lines of management.
       VERDICT: Not guilty. The credentials documents contained no false statements.

Noppadon faces temple charge

2009-09-23T00:26:00.002-07:00

       The national anti-graft agency has accused former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama of negligence of duty over his signing of a joint communique with Cambodia concerning the Preah Vihear temple, a source at the agency says.
       The National Anti-Corruption Commission ruling will be announced today based on a 130-page report.
       The investigation of the signing covered 35 other people including four cabinet members in the present government and government officials, including some from the Foreign Ministry.
       The ministers involved are Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart,Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, Information and Communications Minister Ranongruk Suwunchwee and Deputy Finance Minister Pradit Phataraprasit. The four served in the Samak administration.
       Only Mr Noppadon is to be indicted,the source said.
       The investigators did not find enough grounds to take action against the others as they were not aware of what the then foreign minister was doing, the source said. Their cases could be rejected if the NACC submitted them to the court.
       The anti-graft agency found Mr Noppadon was negligent in his duties under Article 157 of the Criminal Code, the source said.
       Mr Noppadon signed the joint communique with Cambodian Deputy Prime
       Minister Sok An on June 18 last year to support Cambodia's application to declare the temple a World Heritage site. Mr Noppadon's mandate was endorsed by Noppadon: Backed the government a heritage listing day earlier.
       But Thailand backed off from its position after the Constitution Court ruled it unconstitutional as it had bypassed parliamentary approval as required under the constitution. Mr Noppadon later resigned.
       NACC member Somluck Jadkrabuanpol, chairman of the investigating panel,denied the NACC had been pressured to rule against the Samak government.
       Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban has asked police to take action against those who instigated the unrest that led to Saturday's fierce clash between the People's Alliance for Democracy and Si Sa Ket residents near the border with Cambodia.
       The PAD supporters staged a protest on Saturday near the border in Kantharalak district in Si Sa Ket to call for the authorities to force Cambodians from the disputed area near Preah Vihear.They confronted a group of local residents who blocked the protest. The clash between PAD protesters and the villagers left scores of people on both sides injured.
       Mr Suthep said those who violated the law must face legal action.
       Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon expressed regret over Saturday's clash between the two groups of Thai citizens.
       Gen Prawit said he had instructed 2nd Army chief Wiboonsak Neepal to closely coordinate with local police and the provincial governor to prevent a recurrence.
       He insisted Cambodia understood the situation as Thai and Cambodian commanders remained in contact.
       Both PAD and Si Sa Ket residents yesterday filed complaints against each other with local police over Saturday's clash.
       Pol Maj Gen Sompong Thongveeraprasert, chief of the Si Sa Ket police,said more than 30 complaints were filed by the two groups.
       Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul dismissed reports a group of men dressed in blue shirts had stirred up local residents to confront the PAD demonstrators. The blue shirts are supporters of Newin Chidchob, the power broker behind Mr Chavarat's Bhumjaithai Party.

PM, CHAOVARAT ACCUSED OF GRAFT

2009-09-23T00:26:00.001-07:00

       A Pheu Thai MP yesterday filed a complaint with National Anti-Corruption Commission against the Prime Minister and the Interior Minister for allowing conflict of interest, claiming the minister's family members hold shares in a construction company.
       Pheu Thai Lamphun MP Sanguan Pongmanee and the party's spokesman Prompong Nopparit claimed a Cabinet resolution on March 10 approved a Bt408 million budget for additions to the Airport Link project. They said the wife and children of Interior Minister Chaovarat Chanweerakul hold shares in Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction, the company which won the contract.
       He said Abhisit must also be responsible for the Cabinet resolution favouring Chaovarat's family.
       "I ask the NACC to investigate Prime Minister Abhisit as the prime minister according to Article 171 that he must be directly related to (the case) just as (former prime minister) Thaksin (Shinawatra) was. The laws on country administration state clearly a prime minister must be responsible for all ministries," Sanguan said.
       Thaksin was found guilty after his wife bought Ratchadaphisek land from the Financial Institutions Development Fund during his premiership. The law prohibits government officials and their spouses from contracting with an agency of which the official is in charge. Thaksin, as a prime minister, was considered also in charge of the FIDF.
       Chaovarat, also Bhum Jai Thai Party leader, said he had declared his assets after many Cabinet reshuffles and did not conceal them. Also, he had had nothing to do with the company for a long time.
       Moreover, he said, Sino-Thai was a public company in which anyone can buy shares; his children are mature persons according to the law and they could buy shares in any company.
       Supachai Jaisamut, Bhum Jai Thai spokesman, said Chaovarat was planning to file a libel suit against Prompong related to the case.

GERMANY'S CONSERVATIVES PREPARE FOR POWER

2009-09-21T05:50:00.000-07:00

       Backed by the trendy middle class and led by a man obsessed with tax cuts, the Free Democrats are bidding to become Angela Merkel's new sidekicks By Tony Paterson
       The women wear Burberry scarves, UGG boots and a lot of make-up; the men favour brassbuttoned blazers and loud blue and yellow striped ties. The political rallies hosted by Germany's pro-business, liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) are like early trendy middle class parties - and this event was no exception. Crowds waited in front of the 500-year-old town hall in the prosperous west German town of Osnabruck for the man who is expected to put the FDP back into power in next week's general election, ending a period of exile from national government that has lasted 11 years.
       Guido Westerwelle tries hard to be German liberalism (which translates into conservatism)personified. The openly gay party leader,47,is permanently suntanned, nearly always in a suit and clearly obsessed with bringing the FDP back into government. His almost singlehanded campaign is peppered with dire warnings about the "Red Menace" facing Germany, and outrageously high taxes he blames for crippling small- and mediumsized businesses.
       In Osnabruck, Guido, as he is known to followers, lost no time in attacking the threat posed by an eventual coalition of the Social Democrats and more communist Left party that could rule Germany."They claim to be democratic socialists," he said of the Left party."But there is no such thing as democratic socialism; it's like talking about a vegetarian abattoir," he added, to laughter.
       Voters appear to be impressed with his party's commitment to cutting taxes and ridding Germany of the restrictions and bureaucracy that not so long ago earned it the title of "sick man of Europe". One of the Burberry-clad ladies at Mr Westerwelle's rally said she would vote for him because the conservative Chancellor, Angela Merkel, had "gone socialist".
       Latest opinion polls suggest the Free Democrats are within a hair's breadth of realising their long-held ambition to form a coalition government with Mrs Merkel's conservatives after the election on Sept 27. Mrs Merkel is certain to take the lion's share of the vote but the race to be her coalition partner is too close to call. Some polls suggest the liberals will get in with a margin of 1% or 2%; others forecast that Mrs Merkel will be obliged to continue her present unwieldy grand coalition with the Social Democrats. Mr Westerwelle is fighting tooth and nail for a place in government. He has flatly ruled out joining a coalition with any of Germany's other parties,dismissing the idea as "completely unworkable". Mrs Merkel has also committed herself to forming an alliance with the liberals, even if it is obtainable with only a single seat.
       Pundits predict if the FDP gains power, it will usher in a new era of pro-business, marketoriented government. The currently left-ofcentre conservative Mrs Merkel, they argue,could transform herself into a Teutonic, albeit toned-down, Margaret Thatcher overnight.
       Gerd Langguth, a political scientist who has written a biography of the Chancellor,says many conservative voters are frustrated by the Merkel government's handling of the recession and its readiness to prop up failed banks and ailing car manufacturers, like Opel.
       "The Free Democrats are benefiting from the support of disappointed conservative voters who are fed up with what they see as the state-capitalism practised by Mrs Merkel's party," he said."The liberals stand out because of their clear pro-business policies."
       Mrs Merkel's Christian Democratic Union fought the last general election in 2005 promising radical economic reform. But the conservatives secured such a wafer-thin majority as result that they were forced to form a coalition with the Social Democrats. Since then, Mrs Merkel has not dared to mention serious changes on the economic front, fearing the subject was a sure vote-killer.
       So the legally-trained Guido Westerwelle has been plugging the gap. He promises a radically simplified tax system that will put more money in the pockets of those who go to work. He attacks the conservatives for rush-ing to the aid of Germany's major concerns as soon as they face economic problems,while ignoring the plight of the vast Mittelstand ,the medium-sized manufacturing firms that provide 70% of German jobs."When a big car company is in trouble, the government bails it out," he says."But when a small firm has problems, the owner ends up mortgaging his house." Tax cuts, he says, are the only way to help these smaller firms stay in business and keep jobs.
       His serious campaign message appears to have transformed the German liberals'prospects. Early in his career as party leader,Mr Westerwelle liked to portray himself as Germany's "fun politician".
       He followed the mayors of Berlin and Hamburg in announcing he was gay. Then he started turning up at rallies in a bright yellow bus called the Guidomobile and wearing shoes with the figure 18 emblazoned on the soles in the liberal colour yellow to stress the percentage of the vote his party wanted to bag.He even put in an appearance on the German version of reality TV show Big Brother .While nobody in Germany bats an eyelid about Mr Westerwelle's homosexuality, many blame his "fun" antics for the party's poor showing in the 2002 and 2005 elections. If his party forms part of Germany's next government, Mr Westerwelle will be expected to take the job of foreign minister like the heads of most junior coalition parties before him.Unlike the other parties in opposition in Germany, the FDP is not clamouring for a speedy withdrawal of the 4,500 German army troops in northern Afghanistan, but neither are they prepared to send their forces to the more dangerous south.
       Mr Westerwelle insists it is Germany's job to confront the Taliban. But his party has decided to break with one of Germany's near sacrosanct post-war codes by demanding an end to conscription. The liberals say a professional army would be much better suited to Germany's military needs.
       The FDP also wants to hang on to Germany's nuclear power stations beyond the scheduled shutdown date of 2020 so Germany can sufficiently develop its alternative energy sources and avoid its dependence on Russian gas."If we don't want to be blackmailed we have to diversify," Mr Westerwelle says.
       Yet whether he will accept the foreign minister's job that was held by his famous liberal predecessor, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, for decades, is no foregone conclusion. If he is asked, he always plays shy."I wish it was the agriculture minister's job I was up for; at least that's a subject I really know something about," he said in an interview. He did not appear to be joking.
       The Independent
       PARTNERSHIP POLITICS: A NATION VOTES
       Q. Who's going to win the German general election on Sept 27?Right now, it looks as if Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats will secure the biggest share of the vote. In the runup, they have been polling 36%, mainly because Mrs Merkel is one of Germany's most popular leaders since the war.
       Q. But that means she'll have to find a coalition partner won't she?Yes, and this is where the outcome is almost impossible to predict. Mrs Merkel wants to end her present grand coalition with the left-wing Social Democrats and form a new government with the probusiness Free Democrats. Some polls predict that the liberals and conservatives will squeak enough votes to form such an alliance; others that they will just fail.
       Q. What would a conservative coalition mean for Germany?It would result in key policy changes including lower taxes and a long-term delay in Germany's plan to phase out all nuclear power stations by 2020. It would also enable Mrs Merkel to introduce a programme of structural and economic reform she abandoned when she was obliged to join with the Social Democrats after the 2005 poll.
       Q. What will happen if Mrs Merkel hasn't the votes for a new alliance?In that case, she will be forced to continue her existing arrangement with the Social Democrats. That's likely to mean a continuation of compromise politics with both parties agreeing on the lowest common policy denominator to govern.
       "The Free Democrats are benefiting from the support of disappointed conservative voters who are fed up with what they see as the state-capitalism practised by Mrs Merkel's party GERD LANGGUTH POLITICAL SCIENTIS

SARAH PALIN SUPPORTER PAYS $63,000 FOR DINNER

2009-09-21T05:49:00.002-07:00

       A true fan of former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in paying US$63,500 (Bt2 million) to have dinner with her.
       Cathy Maples of Huntsville, Alabama, on Friday won the dinner in an Internet auction, which was a benefit for a charity that aids wounded veterans.
       Maples says she fully supports the military and the men and women fighting for this nation. Maples, who owns a defence contracting company, also says she's "big advocate" for Palin, and would love to see her as president.
       Palin offered the dinner as part of the charity auction on eBay for the Ride for the Ride 2 Recovery programme, which supports wounded veterans through cycling programmes.
       Organisers say the winner will gave to foot the travel bill to meet up with Palin, likely in Alaska. Maples says that's no problem.

IRANIAN PROTESTERS ARRESTED AFTER RALLY

2009-09-21T05:49:00.001-07:00

       Iran's official news agency says police detained several protesters after Friday'a massive demonstrations.
       The spokesman of Tehrkan police department Colonel Mahdi Ahmadi yesterday said "several" people were detained for throwing rocks at police and setting morotcycles on fire, according to IRNA.
       No exact numbekr was given for the detentions.
       On Friday tens of thousands of protesters-many decked out in the green colours of the reform movement and chanting "Death to the dictator!" - rallies in defiance of Iran's Islamic leadership, clashing with police and confronting staterun anti-Israel rallies.
       In the first major opposition protests in two months, demonstrators marching shoulder-to-shoulder raised their hands in V-for-victory signs on mian boulevards and squares throughout kthe capital.
       Lines of police, security forces and plainclothes Basij militiamen kept the two side apart in most cases.
       At times they waded into the protesters with baton charges and tear gas volleys. The demonstrators responded by throwing stones and bricks, and setting tyres ablaze.
       Hard-liners attacked two senior opposition leaders who joined the protects.
       Former pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami was shoved and jostled, gripping his black turban to keep it from being knocked off as supporters rushed in to protect him, pushing away the attackers.

NEWIN TO ATTEND COURT FOR VERDICT TOMORROW

2009-09-21T05:47:00.000-07:00

       Newin Chidchob, a core leader of the Bhum Jai Party, said yesterday he would go to court tomorrow to hear the verdict of the rubber-saplings case, which involves 44 defendants, including former ministers in the Thaksin Cabinet.
       The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders is scheduled to hand down its verdict on the case at 2pm tomorrow. The court postponed reading its ruling on August 17, when a high-profile defendant, former commerce minister Adisai Bodharamik, was absent, saying he was on a medical trip to the US. Other defendants among the 44 are former deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak and deputy finance minister Varathep Ratanakorn.
       The media has reported that the court will definitely issue its verdict tomorrow even though some defendants are not expected to turn up.
       Newin said he had been staying at his Bangkok home and had not run away to the provinces or absconded from the country.
       Newin and another core leader of the coalition Bhum Jai Thai Party, Sora-at Klingprathum, would definitely show up at the court, a source said. "They will not run away because if they do, they will have to keep running for the rest of their life,'' the source said.
       All top Bhum Jai Thai Party leaders will also be present at the court to give their leaders moral support.
       However, Newin's supporters - known as the blue shirts - will not mobilise at the court. If Newin and Sora-at are acquitted, the party cannot yet celebrate because both face a number of other graft cases, including the two-and three-digit lotteries, the source said.

MAN CITY BOSSES REGRET ALLOWING THAKSIN TO TAKE OVER THEIR CLUB

2009-09-21T05:46:00.002-07:00

       "We failed to do proper research on him," chief executive tells Guardian
       Senior figures at Manchester City have publicly rounded on the club's former owner, ex-Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, in comments reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper yesterday.
       Garry Cook, the club's executive chairman, said he "deeply regretted my failure to do proper research on Thaksin", while manager Mark Hughes admitted he made "too many assumptions" before joining from Blackburn Rovers last year.
       It is three years since Thaksin, who is living in exile to avoid jail for corruption, was toppled by the military and had $U$2.2 billion dollars (Bt76 billion) in funds frozen soon afterwards.
       Hughes, Cook and others including midfielder Stephen Ireland said a lack of cash under Thaksin meant Manchester City was well short of having the resources needed to make the club big hitters in the Premiership.
       "I made too many assumptions," Hughes told the Guardian. "I assumed that people and facilities would be top quality and it was patently obvious they weren't."
       Cook admitted that the atmosphere at Eastlands was like a "lion's den".
       "Thaksin's money was locked away," he said. "We got into a position where we couldn't pay the players and [ex-chairman] John Wardle was asked to lend the club two million pounds (Bt110 million)."
       Ireland added: "It was mad that somebody like that ... could own our football club".
       Hughes was frustrated by the club's problems during the tumultuous few months he worked under Thaksin.
       "The reality wasn't exactly what was described and sold to me," Hughes was quoted as telling The Guardian website. "In fairness, we were able to go into the transfer market, but there seemed a focus that players had to be sold, and I realised that maybe the resources weren't in place that I thought."
       Hughes found it difficult to concentrate on his job while Thaksin was at the helm.
       "If you get to a point where it is untenable and not manageable, then you make the decision to walk away," he said. "I never got to that point - but I was close."
       Hughes persevered and saw City bought in September 2008 by Abu Dhabi's wealthy Sheikh Mansour, who has lavished more than US$200 million on new players.
       Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the club's current chairman, said the situation the new owner, Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, inherited was "simply unacceptable" and forced quick action to make basic improvements to, for example, the club's gym.

Has Thailand made progress? Thaking taunts

2009-09-21T05:46:00.001-07:00

       Fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra last night asked what good had been done for the coun-try over the past three years, after his government was overthrown in a military coup. "I would like both my admirers and haters to think what good has been done over the past three years. Has the economy improved? What about justice and human rights? And is there fair treatment for bureaucrats?" Thaksin asked.
       "They accuse me of interfering with independent organisations, and what about the situation these days? They accused me of interfering in the mass media and what's going on today?" he said during his speech.
       "See you in Thailand soon," he said to conclude his video-link broadcast to red-shirt supporters at their anti-government rally at the Royal Plaza.
       Earlier, the former premier posted a new Twitter message asking the coup leaders and Thais to analyse if the country was in a better shape three years after the coup toppled his government.
       "They accused me of not being loyal [to the monarchy], interfering in the media, the independ-ent agencies and failing to solve problems in the three southern border provinces and causing national divisions. Today, are these problems getting solved and is there an improvement?" his message said.

COUNTRY WEATHERS PROTESTS

2009-09-21T05:43:00.000-07:00

       Red shirts defy heavy rains to mark third anniversary of coup with peaceful rally; Violence mars yellow shirts' bid to march to disputed area on border with Cambodia
       The country was hit by two mass protests yesterday when about 20,000 anti-government red shirts held a rally in Bangkok and thousands of the rival yellow shirts marched towards a disputed border area near Si Sa Ket.
       The Bangkok protest was generally peaceful although it was disrupted by a heavy downpour. However, the march by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) to a cliff next to the disputed area near the Preah Vihear temple led to a clash between the yellow shirts and local villagers, who said they feared the protest would further sour ties with Cambodia.
       The red shirts gathered at the Royal Plaza to mark the third anniversary of the military coup that ousted the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, who is now a fugitive overseas.
       "We came here today to mark the third anniversary of the coup, which has caused huge damage to the country," red-shirt leader Jatuporn Promphan told the crowd as a thunderstorm drenched the protest site.
       "This will be a peaceful protest and will end by midnight if the government does not use violence," said Jatuporn, who is also an MP from the opposition Pheu Thai Party.
       Thaksin was due to address the crowd later by video-link.
       Authorities deployed more than 6,500 soldiers and police and imposed the Internal Security Act |in the protest area, amid fears of |a repeat of riots by the same |group in April, which left two people dead.
       Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said there were reports unidentified groups of trouble-makers could set off bombs in the capital to create unrest. "I am worried about the situation tonight and have warned intelligence agencies," he said.
       Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who is in charge of security, warned yesterday that four to five groups of trouble-makers might try to incite violence during the red-shirt protest.
       The red shirts continued their protest despite hours of heavy rain that flooded the protest site around the Royal Plaza.
       Heavy rain started at 2.20pm and the downpour didn't stop till more than two hours later. Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship leaders Veera Musigapong, Nattawut Saikua and Chatuporn Prompan took turns to address protesters on the stage, urging them to stand their ground and not to leave the protest site.
       Some protesters who came by their personal vehicles left the scene and some waded through knee-length water at certain spots and found shelter at roofed bus stops.
       When the rain stopped, they converged again at the Royal Plaza. They held hands vowing not to give up even if it rained heavier. The back of their main rally stage read: "Three years against bureaucratic polity to found a new Thai state".
       More than 100 pieces of plywood were kept behind the stage, ready to be installed if the authorities turned on a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) to disrupt their protest.
       Sanchai Chadapet, a leader of the red shirts, took to the make-shift stage on a pickup truck loaded with loud speakers after moving on Si Ayutthaya Road to the Si Sao Residence of Privy Council president General Prem Tinsulanonda. He slammed the elder statesman for 30 minutes before an audience of 50 red shirts before dispersing to join the main stage. They carried a 500-metre long cloth with a message "Give us back the 1997 Constitution".
       Police threw a security blanket around Prem's residence.
       The red shirts accuse Prem of masterminding the 2006 coup.
       Earlier yesterday, some 4,000 red-shirt supporters of Thaksin showed up outside Prem's country home in Nakhon Ratchasima but called off their protest when confronted by an Army guard and informed that the chief royal adviser was not there.

Prosecutor takes on Potjaman in civil suit

2009-09-21T05:42:00.001-07:00

       A public prosecutor yesterday filed a civil suit against Potjaman na Pombejra,former wife of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, on behalf of the Bank of Thailand's Financial Institutions Development Fund.
       The public prosecutor, Phasin Thipphayarak, filed the case with the Civil Court, asking it to nullify the fund's sale of four land plots, or 33 rai worth 772 million baht, to Khunying Potjaman and to order her to return the ownership of the plots to the fund.
       FIDF sold the land to Khunying Potjaman after she won an uncontested bid in December 2003.
       The prosecutor claimed the land deal was nullified after the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions convicted Thaksin of violating Article 100 of the National AntiCorruption Act, which forbids politicians and their spouses from business deals with state agencies, last October.
       Thaksin and Khunying Potjaman were still married when the land deal was sealed. The former prime minister was accused of using his position to help Khunying Potjaman buy the land at a discounted price.

The coup-making coalition's mistaken basic premise

2009-09-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

       All things considered, the military is now resurgent.
       Its budget has increased substantially. It has reversed many of the security sector reforms.
       That Thailand remains increasingly locked in a protracted political crisis three years after its latest military coup suggests the generals have not succeeded in their aims.
       Corruption allegations and conflicts of interest are still rife. Meddling with the bureaucracy's operations and promotions continues. Society is more polarised now than at the time of the Sept 19,2006 coup.
       Challenges to the monarchy, as manifested in the blocked websites and lese majeste cases, have grown markedly.
       These four stated coup conditions have not been justified. In fact, they have exacerbated in view of the political machinations that have unfolded over the past three years.
       Where the generals went wrong is rooted in their - and their backers' and allies'- fundamental premise. Their putsch was intended not just to get rid of Thaksin Shinawatra but to undo his unwitting but lasting legacy in the awakening of the Thai rural masses.
       These previously neglected sections of the electorate became stakeholders during the Thaksin years. Their political consciousness rose irreversibly. With a stake in the system, they have been unwilling to go away quietly.
       The coup-making coalition's chief mistake was their attempt to turn back the clock to pre-Thaksin Thailand. This mistake has been working its way through the body politic in various manifestations.Corrective measures and pacification campaigns from the sufficiency movement and the military's "moderation society" to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's "I love Thailand" have been unable to rein in and put a lid on these newly unleashed forces of change.
       The long trail of Thaksin's corruption,cronyism and abuses of power meant that most people did not come out to protest against the coup when it took place. Apart from small groups of demonstrators in the streets of Bangkok, a wait-and-see atmosphere prevailed. The glaring exception was the taxi driver,Nuamthong Praiwan, who first drove his car into a tank and later hung himself in remonstration.
       The coup-makers then appointed a lacklustre interim government and saw to it that the coup-making coalition was given the upper hand under a new set of rules enshrined in the 2007 constitution to pin down the development of democratic institutions.
       Most baffling of all was the coupmaking coalition's unwillingness to simply acknowledge that Thaksin had to go because he was a crook, but that his positive legacies in popular stakeholdership would be incorporated. Getting rid of parts of the Thaksin regime while retaining some in order to move on would have engendered reconciliation and a way forward.
       All things considered, the military is now resurgent. Its budget has increased substantially. It has reversed many of the security sector reforms that were broached in the late 1990s, including more streamlined personnel. Its anachronistic agencies from decades past, particularly the Internal Security Operations Command, have been given new leases of life. Isoc is now the main driver of the moderation society, or "mo-so," campaign. The top brass are in charge of key policy areas that had been taken away after their disgraceful intervention that led to the crisis in May 1992.
       Civil-military relations are increasingly dictated by the brass. Indeed, the generals are back, and this time they will stay and insist on their role as the selfprofessed protectors and guardians of how Thailand shapes up in the near term.
       Although it has been costly to Thailand's democratic development, the ascendancy of the military has made the coup, despite all of its problematic consequences, worthwhile for the generals. They have also learned by doing.The results of the last coup do not encourage them to seize power directly again, which is the "first-best" outcome in military interventions in politics. It would be difficult to find an effective interim government to keep the economy chugging along. Thailand's international credibility would diminish. Diplomats,investors and tourists are wary of coupmaking countries. The generals themselves would lose prestige at home and abroad.
       They have found a "second-best" option that has worked rather well in their scheme of things. With allies in Parliament, the bureaucracy and civil society,the generals could see to it that a sitting government does not survive in the topsyturvy political arena.
       This was evident last year when the military chose not to follow two elected governments' instructions.
       At the same time, they can broker and nudge forward a government of elected MPs whom they could work with and whose instructions in dealing with street protests they have duly followed.Mr Abhisit's government, for example,comprises elected representatives but it is seen as not really an elected government. This is a nuanced and sophisticated coup-making formula tailored for the globalisation age. It is not ideal for the generals but it works under the pressures and constraints at home and abroad.
       The most striking development in Thailand's coup-making circles is the coalescence of a unit-based, rather than the age-old class-based, lines of power.In the recent past, coup-makers harked back to their school days as members of the same graduating class from the military academy. Class Five was infamous during the 1991-92 period, preceded by Class Seven in the 1980s.
       This time, anybody who is to be somebody in the line of command is likely to hail from the 21st Infantry Regiment,which is under the 2nd Infantry Division,located in the eastern provinces.
       This niche of select officers is popularly known as the "tiger soldiers" or "eastern tigers". Their rise and prominence have been well documented in the Thai media as public information.
       Coup-making considerations in the guise of nation, religion and monarchy,whether as a first-best or second-best preference, are likely to fall under their domain in the foreseeable future.
       The writer is Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University.

Emissions, elections bring out the worst

2009-09-18T07:24:00.001-07:00

       Australian politics is turning personal again, with deep animosity between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his chief opponent spilling into upper house gridlock on emissions trade laws and speculation about a snap poll.
       Mr Rudd and conservative leader Malcolm Turnbull could barely bring themselves to shake hands at a recent book launch, while a political legacy speech by Mr Rudd was dismissed by Mr Turnbull as the most "graceless and ungracious" talk he had witnessed.
       Mr Turnbull this month called Mr Rudd "breathtakingly dishonest".
       One of Mr Turnbull's senior henchman, Tony Abbott, joined in to describe the bookish prime minister as "timid,smug and partisan", setting up a belligerent fortnight of parliament disrupted daily by an increasingly aggrieved opposition.
       Analysts say the renewed combativeness has its roots in an obstructive upper house Senate's opposition to key Rudd policies, including emissions trade.
       And that combative tone in a centreleft Labor government, that until now has tried to strip partisanship out of politics, could potentially trigger an early election, says Australian National University analyst Norman Abjorensen.
       "We are now entering a pre-election phase and there is a broad strategy here for Mr Rudd's Labor to stamp its brand on everything," Mr Abjorensen said.
       "His intention is to run full term [until the end of 2010]. But events can change and Rudd might decide enough is enough, and let's go. If he sees a significant political advantage, he'll go for it,"he said. The current slanging match is at least a step above past Australian political debates. Former Labor premier Paul Keating described opponents variously as "a shiver waiting for a spine","brain-damaged" or "a dead carcass,swinging in the breeze".
       The current ill feeling may cloud the ability of both sides to negotiate on key climate change laws promised by Mr Rudd, as well as contentious private health reforms to make the wealthy pay more for medical cover.
       "The hard-heads will be trying now to draw a distinction about the reality of political negotiation over theatrical tactics," Mr Abjorensen said."We are seeing a spillover of frustration of opposition,of seeing how powerless you are."
       Voters could go to the polls as early as December if Mr Rudd's much-vaunted emissions trading scheme fails to pass the Senate for a second time in November, handing Mr Rudd a constitutional trigger to call elections in both the upper and lower houses. The conservatives are viscerally divided on the scheme to force 1,000 of Australia's biggest polluting companies to purchase emissions permits, with Mr Turnbull's leadership and preference for negotiation under pressure over the issue.
       Rebel conservative MPs, including a disgruntled former leader who called Mr Turnbull "narcissistic", want Mr Turnbull to reject the scheme and risk an early election against Mr Rudd, whose standing in recent opinion polls is at near-record levels of popularity.
       Mr Rudd was keeping the option of an early election to drive home a message Labor was different, Mr Abjorensen said,while holding the threat of a snap poll over unpopular Mr Turnbull.
       "It's a useful tool, particularly for a government riding high in the polls,"he said.

HATOYAMA BECOMES PM IN HISTORIC POWER SHIFT

2009-09-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

       Japan's new centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama acclaimed a turning point in history yesterday as he took command of Asia' s biggest economy with a pledge to return power to the people.
       The 62-year-old scion of a political dynasty was installed by parliament a fortnight after his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ended more than half a century of conservative dominance in a stunning election landslide.
       After naming his cabinet ministers, whose top priority is recovery from Japan's worst post-war economic recession, Hatoyama side he also wanted to redress the nation's long subservience to US foreign policy.
       "Immediately after I was appointed prime minister, I felt a tremor of excitement at a change in Japanese history, and on the other hand I felt a grave responsibility," he said at his frist prime ministerial press conference.
       "We will probably face some trial and error, but I want to ask people to stay with us, patiently," he said.
       Reaffirming his campaign promise to build a gentler, more "fraternal" society, Hatoyama said: "We have to shift the country toward that end, I will lead the way."
       Japan's usually risk-averse voters, tired with a stagnant political system and years of economic malaise, took a chance on the untested DPJ when they threw out the Liberal Democratic Party.
       But while the party itself is unfamiliar with political power, Hatoyama's cabinet lieutenants encompass years of experience.
       Hirohisa Fujii, a 77-year-old former finance ministry bureaucrat who has attacked wasteful public spending, was appointed finance minister, a post that he briefly held in the early 1990s.
       Katsuya Okada, 56, a former DPJ leader known as "Mr Clean" for his strait-laced image, was named foreign minister tasked with overhauling Japan's relations with the United States and Asia.
       Naoto Kan, a DPJ co-founder, was appointed deputy prime minister and head of the newly-formed National Strategy Bureau, which will have the crucial remit of wresting control over policy and budgets from the powerful state bureaucracy.
       "It will be the start of a new era," said Hidekazu Kawai, political science professor emeritus of Gakushuin University.
       "But that is not to say the public is euphoric. Voters are very cool and keenly watching whether the DPJ can pull off their agenda. The people are dissatisfied with the LDP. They are also anxious about the DPJ."

Norway's Stoltenberg declares victory in poll

2009-09-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

       Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg declared victory yesterday for the centre-left in a tight parliamentary election and pledged to maintain his economic policy course and start coalition talks with partners.
       With 99.9% of votes counted, Mr Stoltenberg's coalition holds a slim but unassailable majority in parliament over the centre-right opposition, which had tried to woo voters with promises of tax cuts and more private initiative in the economy.
       The result showed voters credited Mr Stoltenberg with steering his oilproducing country through the global downturn and an active government role in promoting full employment.
       "We will start the work on a new government platform. I'm confident we'll succeed, as we've had four years of experience with this," Mr Stoltenberg told a news conference.
       Mr Stoltenberg's Labour, the Socialist Left and the Centre Party jointly hold 86 of parliament's 169 seats, one less than they won four years ago but good enough to be the first re-elected Norwegian government in 16 years.
       "Stoltenberg's grand triumph," daily Dagsavisen flashed on its front page.Mainstream daily Aftenposten said "The Victor" next to a smiling picture of Mr Stoltenberg, while Dagbladet lead with "Proud of you Jens", quoting the prime minister's wife.
       Tabloid VG looked forward, saying on its front page that "Jens wants new people in his cabinet".
       The campaign debated issues ranging from whether to tap new Arctic areas for oil and gas exploration as North Sea output falls, to how Norway should use its massive $400 billion offshore wealth fund - which owns 1% of global stocks.
       Norway has survived the global downturn better than its Nordic peers in part because Mr Stoltenberg has injected more oil money into the economy and offered big relief to banks.
       Financial markets reacted calmly to the election result, with the crown trading steady and the Oslo bourse gently rising.
       "The 2010 budget is nowmore important for markets, which want to see how much oil money will be spent ... and if that could influence interest rates and possibly the crown," said Camilla Villand, an analyst at Norway's largest bank DnB NOR.
       Mr Stoltenberg said he would continue the economic policies that his government has pursued since 2005 and declined to comment on next year's budget, which is due on Oct 13.
       With unemployment at 3% and the mainland economy set to grow more than 2% in 2010 after a mild recession this year, many see the red-green coalition as a safe pair of hands.
       No government has been voted back in since 1993, not long before the country set up the wealth fund to invest oil and gas revenues abroad, instead of pumping them into the local economy.
       Now worth $80,000 per citizen, the fund stokes expectations for quick improvements in public services, which in turn has led to a series of one-term cabinets.
       The centre-left has promised to return to strict spending curbs on the oil windfall once the crisis fades.
       It opposes the tax cuts and privatisation proposals made by centre-right parties, saying they would eat away at spending on healthcare, education and care for the elderly.
       Norway is the world's fifth-biggest crude exporter and western Europe's biggest natural gas exporter. However,the powerful oil and gas lobby has said the future of the industry in the country hinges on gaining access to the Lofoten Islands region in the Arctic.
Mr Stoltenberg voiced hope his cabinet would find "solutions" to questions about exploration off the archipelago, even though the Socialist Left vehemently oppose drilling due to environmental concerns and the region's fishing interests.
"We have a demanding set of questions to handle on the issue of drilling offshore Lofoten. We found solutions on the Barents Sea, and I'm confident we'll find solutions on Lofoten as well,"Mr Stoltenberg said.

DEMOCRATS TO TAKE POWER AMID HIGH EXPECTATIONS

2009-09-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

       Half a century of almost uninterrupted conservative rule in Japan will come to an end this week as Yukio Hatoyama's Democrats take power, facing huge pressure to revive the economy.
       It is the first time since 1955 that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been voted out of government in the world's number two economy, and only their second stint ever in opposition.
       Hatoyama, whose Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) wonalandslide general election victory two weeks ago with a promise of change, is set to be appointed prime minister by parliament on Wednesday.
       Three in four people expect much of their incoming government, with an equal number unsure of what to expect after over 50 years of almost unbroken LDP rule, a poll showed yesterday.
       The percentage of people with high expectations of the DPJ rose to 72 per cent in early September, up from 52 per cent in June, the survey, carried out by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Waseda University, said.
       However, 77 per cent said they felt unsure about the DPJ, slightly up from the 76 per cent who expressed such concerns in the previous survey, the poll showed.
       The latest survey was conducted on September 5 and 6, interviewing 3,000 eligible voters at 250 locations across the country.
       Experts say Hatoyama's honeymoon with voters may not last long.
       Opinion polls show the DPJ faces high expectations from voters eager to see an improvement in the ailing economy following the worst slump in decades, but pulling the country out of its long economic malaise will be no easy task. While the recession may be over, officially at least, unemployment and homelessness are on the rise and the country faces major long-term challenges to cope with an ageing and shrinking population as well as soaring public debt.
       Hatoyama, 62, has laid out an ambitious agenda, promising to boost household income through financial assistance for families and farmers, free high school education and an end to highway tolls, all without raising taxes.
       He has delighted environmentalists but irked business leaders by pledging to cut Japan's greenhouse gas emissions by ambitious 25 per cent by 2020 from 1990 levels, if other major emitters commit similarly aggressive goals.
       On the diplomatic front, he has vowed to seek an "equal" alliance with the United States and has already raised eyebrows in Washington with a spirited critique of US-led globalisation and "unrestrained market fundamentalism".
       Hatoyama will make his debut on the world stage as premier later this month, addressing the UN General Assembly, meeting US President Barack Obama and taking part in a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 nations.
       His foremost task during the trip is to confirm Japan's alliance with the United States, having called for a review of US military forces in Japan that provide security against the threat from North Korea.
       The DPJ, which has long argued that Japan should not be part of "an American war", has promised to end Japan's naval refuelling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of the Nato-led force in Afghanistan.
       "It is only natural that policies change when the government changes," said Jiro Yamaguchi, a politics professor at Hokkaido University. "Japan should have no reason to be bound by US policies."

Norway's "Thatcher" locked in tight race

2009-09-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

       Siv Jensen has an unusual ambition for a nation famous for its cradle-to-grave welfare system: she wants to go down in history as Norway's Margaret Thatcher.
       And polls leading up to tomorrow's national election in the oil-rich Nordic state of 4.8 million people show the leader of the right-wing Progress Party may have a shot at pursuing her dream of applying a free market overhaul to a society often called a socialist paradise.
       The Progress Party is locked in a tight duel with Prime Minster Jens Stoltenberg's left-leaning Labour Party, Norway's dominant political force since World War Two.
       A win for the bleached-blond 40-yearold Ms Jensen - who takes explicit inspiration from the former British prime minister - would represent a sea-change in Norwegian politics, traditionally a contest between socialists and a cluster of parties on the centre-right.
       While those parties disagree about the level of taxation needed to sustain Norway's welfare state, the Progress Party challenges the Scandinavian welfare model altogether. It proposes reforms including increased privatisation of healthcare and education and using Norway's vast oil wealth to cut the country's famously high taxes.
       In foreign policy, Progress is much more Israel-friendly than the current government, which in 2007 made Norway the first Western nation to recognise the Hamas-led Palestinian leadership.
       It also has strong views on immigration,advocating higher demands onnewcomers to integrate into Norwegian society.
       That has touched a nerve in Norway, whose immigrant population has skyrocketed by a factor of five since the Siv Jensen early 1970s. Today, immigrants make up over 10% of Norway's population and a quarter of Oslo's halfmillion citizens.
       "We can't just take all the immigrants in," Anne-Marie Sellvang, a 70-year-old Progress Party supporter said."Many of them don't work, they come here without papers - I can't understand it."
       In recent years the biggest groups of asylum-seekers have come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and Eritrea.
       The Progress Party uses less bombastic rhetoric than many other anti-immigrant groups in Europe, but party officials have raised eyebrows with suggestions that Norway move its cramped asylum centres
       to Uganda and Tanzania.
       "The Progress Party simply have no sense of how to build a multi-cultural Norway.They're against all foreigners,even though we work hard and pay our taxes just like Norwegians do," said Awadhi Abdi,47, a Somali bus driver,who was sitting at a cafe in Groenland, a largely immigrant neighbourhood ineastern Oslo.Ms Jensen appears to have toned down the immigration issue to keep it from overshadowing the party's economic platform, much of which rests on the assumption that Norway's massive oil wealth could be spent more wisely.
       To avoid inflation, Norway sets aside much of the revenue from its North Sea oil and gas in a sovereign wealth fund,currently valued at more than two trillion kroner (11.4 trillion baht).
       The Progress Party calls for using more of it at home, to lower taxes and to spend more on infrastructure in a country almost entirely covered by mountains.
       Analysts say that the Progress Party's surge in popularity is due in part to anti-immigrant sentiment, but that discontent with the current administration's use of oil money has been its main source of new voters in recent years.
       "Those who think the oil fund and state surplus is being mishandled, you see that a lot of those people ... sympathise with" the Progress Party, said Marcus Buck, a political scientist at the University of Tromsoe.
       Critics say that the party's proposed reforms are dangerous for Norway,particularly at a time when it is one of only a few countries to have escaped the global financial crisis largely unscathed, an outcome for which many credit the current government.
       Mr Stoltenberg has called the Progress Party's proposals a "gamble" and referred to the party disparagingly as "an alternative to the safe, Norwegian model".
       Ms Jensen's party has also run afoul of environmentalists and climate campaigners by calling for oil-drilling in the fjord-fringed coastline of northern Norway.
       The Progress Party won a record 22%of the vote in 2005, finishing second behind Labour, and polls suggest an even stronger result is possible tomorrow.
       A telephone poll of 1,734 voters published on Thursday by the commercial network TV2 showed the leftist bloc with 44.5% of the vote, with 33% going to Labour. The Progress Party held 23%support, and the three centre-right parties -the Conservatives, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals - a combined 29.5%.
       The poll, conducted between Sept 7 and Sept 10 by the Gallup group, had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
       Such figures suggest the election will be followed by some tricky coalitionbuilding. While the Conservatives have shown a grudging willingness to join forces with Progress, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals have refused even to enter into dialogue with Ms Jensen's party. Meanwhile, Ms Jensen has made clear she will not back any government that doesn't include her party.

Will Japan finally get a Cabinet that makes policy?

2009-09-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

       TO APPRECIATE the potential for Japan's global role following the first change in more than half a century of its ruling party, we must remind ourselves what that role has been until now.
       Economically, Japan was formidable, dominating the globalised economy and seriously challenging entire industrial sectors in the US and Europe. Also as a creditor nation, Japan gained an indirect but considerable political and strategic significance. But in the theatre of strategic moves and diplomacy, there has been an odd vacancy that Japan could, and in many eyes should, have filled. The world has long become used to what at first was considered a great anomaly of the globe's second largest industrial power not being a global political presence.
       The Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), which has just defeated the staid and internationally comatose LDP with 308 seats in the lower-house elections, intends to change this. Whether it can actually do so will depend on its ability to turn itself into a genuinely "ruling" party - something that will require much political imagination and wisdom for forging a cooperative relationship with bureaucrats, crucial support from the media and, probably, lots of luck. Many Japanese and foreign commentators remain very sceptical.
       But it must be kept in mind that this party has wanted to do this for 16 years since their earlier failed attempt at creating a cabinet that functions like one and does not put signatures on what bureaucrats have compiled. The fact is that no Japanese PM or any faction hiding behind him or any council has so far constituted a forum to which other countries could turn. Even the Finance Ministry, powerful body that it always has been, was not an effective substitute for an actual policymaking body of the central government.
       Japanese politicians have since the 1960s been in the business of power brokering rather than policymaking, which was left to government bureaucrats. Hence, the new government must create suitable institutions to deal with domestic as well as international matters practically from scratch. The party has already begun setting up a "National Strategy Office" as a policy coordinating center, which will be led by Kan Naoto, one of Japan's most capable politicians.
       Rarely having experienced top-down political decision-making, Japan's elite among the parties, and especially the bureaucracy, the media and academia will have to get used to what may be called a revolutionary change in their environment. This will take some doing, and we must expect that for the first year, domestic issues will receive most attention as the incumbents consolidate their position.
       But if Minshuto politicians are allowed to have their way, and can survive the attempts by bureaucrats to bring them down through trumped up scandals, we may get to know a different Japan. This will happen at a time when regional circumstances look more than ready for it.
       Japan was able to build its economic miracle in the comfort of a strategic shelter. Besides providing military protection, the US also played the crucial role of "buyer of last resort" to keep Japan's immense production machinery humming. Until the credit crisis struck last year. The abrupt discontinuation of demand for Japanese goods has been a big blow to a system that was already showing some signs of exhaustion.
       Since China gets all the attention when it comes to buying US debt, it has recently been forgotten that Japan is the biggest net lender to the US. Until China emerged as the next biggest buyer of US Treasuries half a decade ago, Japan had provided the main pillar of support for the dollar. It was Japan that initially taught Washington the possibility of having "deficits without tears". But the upward pressure on the yen is no longer something that Japanese business believes must be stopped at all costs. The fact that Japanese-owned dollars circulating in the US economy no longer guarantee American purchases in Japan has prompted a rethinking of priorities in the higher reaches of the Japanese business community.
       The Minshuto wants to start other engines of economic growth besides the export sector. China is on the way to become Japan's No-1 trading partner, or has already done so, and the two countries have begun to work more closely together in other areas too, as in their agreement to promote a strengthening of Asian currency reserves.
       Prominent members of the Minshuto are ready to take the idea of an Asean+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) seriously. This plan for formalising and deepening aspects of cooperation between the aforementioned nations stalled because of foot dragging in Tokyo. There are further prospects for better political relations with China; Yukio Hatoyama, the prime minister designate, has already made the symbolically important announcement that he will not be visiting the Yasukuni shrine (something that caused a significant crisis in Chinese-Japanese relations when Koizumi was Prime Minister).
       Relations with Japan's largest neighbour, Russia, need urgent attention as well. Attempts to normalise and improve them stalled as a result of a government addicted to the status quo. Given time, a Minshuto government may well be the agent for what the world has been expecting in the way of Japan playing a positive regional role.
       Should the previous hurdles be resolved, the DPJ will be able to fix its eyes on what is Japan's most problematic international relationship: the United States. Its problems are not caused by any mutual hostility - the trade and industrial "frictions" of a couple of decades ago or any recent deep disagreement. The problem is that the true nature of the relationship cannot be openly addressed. Japan has been, with regard to its international position, for all intents and purposes a protectorate of the US.
       Some Minshuto politicians, including the prime-minister-to-be Yukio Hatoyama, have emphasised the need for Japan to become less dependent on the US and work toward a more equal relationship. Washington, which has long taken Japan for granted, has already made clear that renegotiation of already reached agreements with the outgoing government is out of the question. How this will be resolved will be seen as a first test of the Hatoyama government.

NLD hopeful for Suu Kyi's release after appeal made

2009-09-09T00:12:00.001-07:00

       The party of Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday it was hopeful that she would be unconditionally released after a court agreed to hear an appeal against her recent conviction.
       Lawyers for the Nobel laureate and the country's ruling junta are due to present legal arguments on Sept 18, after Mrs Suu Kyi challenged last month's guilty verdict for sheltering an American man who swam to her lakeside home.
       The regime has ordered her to spend another 18 months under house arrest,softening the original sentence of three years' hard labour. But the order still keeps her off the political scene during elections scheduled for 2010.
       "There could be changes as the court has accepted our appeal," said Nyan Win, her lawyer and a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD), referring to Rangoon divisional court's decision on Friday to hear the case."We are hoping for her unconditional release, which is also what we wanted," he said.
       "We will meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi this week after we get permission from the authorities. We need to get last instructions from her for the final arguments," Nyan Win said. Daw is a term of respect in Burmese.
       The appeal would focus on the fact that a 1974 constitution under which the 64-year-old was originally detained had been superseded by a new constitution approved last year, her lawyers have said.
       The guilty verdict sparked international outrage and the imposition of further sanctions against Burma's powerful generals, who have already kept Mrs Suu Kyi locked up for 14 of the past 20 years.
       Mrs Suu Kyi insisted on her innocence during the trial held at Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison, saying that she allowed US military veteran John Yettaw to stay for two nights at her home because he was ill.
       Mr Yettaw was sentenced to seven years' hard labour for the stunt in early May, but was freed after a visit by US Senator Jim Webb last month on what the military regime said were compassionate grounds because of health problems.
       The move raised expectations of a possible thaw in the tense relations between Burma and the United States.
       Meanwhile, the NLD called on the ruling junta yesterday to allow it to reopen its branch offices, which would be crucial for taking part in next year's planned national elections.
       The NLD issued a statement saying the party had sent a letter to junta chairman Senior General Than Shwe on Friday noting that the party is a legally registered organisation but that its local offices had been sealed and its activities restricted by the government.

HOUSE TO DEBATE ON AMENDMENTS

2009-09-08T00:26:00.001-07:00

       The House of Representatives is likely to convene next week to discuss constitutional amendments proposed by the parliamentary committee for political reconciliation.
       Chinnaworn Boonyakiet, the coalition chief whip, said the government whips had yesterday voted in support of holding a meeting to debate the panel's proposal that calls for six changes in the charter.
       Coalition whip, Democrat Chinnaworn, said he expects the session to last for two days and that it is aimed at hearing comments from MPs on a matter that has become the subject of public debate. He said there would be no voting at the end of the general debate.
       Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday the Cabinet would decide today on whether such a general debate was necessary, and if it was, the Cabinet would request the House speaker to include the topic in the House agenda.
       "Personally I want the meeting to take place between September 16 and 18," he said, adding that House Speaker Chai Chidchob would be the one setting the final date for the debate.
       When asked about clauses that should be amended, the PM said he agreed a change be made to Article 190, which requires parliamentary endorsement of international treaties. However, he warned that parliamentarians supporting certain changes proposed by the panel could be deemed as violating the Constitution in acting for their own benefit.
       Abhisit said before the Constitution is amended, parliamentarians should first be able to provide satisfactory explanations about the need for these changes.
       Some 10 MPs and senators yesterday presented a draft constitutional amendment along with a list of 152 parliamentarians who are its proponents to Senate Speaker Prasopsuk Boondet, who is also deputy Parliament president.
       Prasopsuk said he would refer the matter to Chai, who is the Parliament president, for further action.
       Senator Prasit Pothasuthon, one of the proponents, said the draft only covered the six points mentioned in the reconciliation panel's report submitted to the PM and the House speaker two months ago.
       MP Somkiat Soralum from the Puea Pandin Party, who is another proponent of the draft, said yesterday that more than 10 other senators and MPs had signed to support the draft but later withdrew their names due to fear the move might be in violation of the Constitution.
       Of the 152 proponents, 64 are senators - most of them elected - and 88 are MPs, of which 80 come from the opposition Pheu Thai Party.

Charter debate fires up

2009-09-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

       The ruling Democrat Party is in conflict with its coalition partners over the electoral system despite an agreement to only seek amendments to provisions to the constitution seen as "less controversial".
       Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday said a meeting of the two houses of parliament had to be convened to debate the proposals.
       He said the plan to amend the charter would be brought up for discussion at a cabinet meeting tomorrow.
       "The debate on the proposals would give each party a chance to find common ground on how to proceed," Mr Abhisit said.
       He said he had raised the matter with House Speaker Chai Chidchob and he had agreed it was possible to convene a joint session to discuss the proposed constitution amendments.
       A highly placed source in the gov-ernment said many key members of the Democrat Party wanted to keep a key feature of the 2007 constitution,the electoral system featuring multiseat constituencies for MPs, intact.
       But the other member parties of the coalition wanted to revert to a singleseat system. The parties argued that if the multi-member constituencies remained in place, the opposition Puea Thai Party would continue to dominate and make a clean sweep in the Northeast.
       They said the single-seat constituencies system, in which a constituency becomes smaller with just one MP seat contested, would give them a chance to win more seats and defeat Puea Thai in the region.
       The key figures pushing for change are from the Bhumjaithai Party which has high hopes at the next election in the Northeast.
       The source said DeputyPrime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban had convinced Mr Abhisit to agree with the coalition parties on the issue. Mr Suthep reportedly met twice with influential politicians who are de facto leaders of coalition parties such as Banharn Silpa-archa, Newin Chidchob and Somsak Thepsuthin to discuss the proposed amendments.
       The source said coalition parties wanted the electoral system changed as quickly as possible because they were not confident of the political situation in the months ahead. There might be too many political problems and the prime minister might opt to dissolve the House.
       Coalition parties have also agreed to amend Article 190 which requires parliamentary approval for international agreements. The article has been criticised by some politicians for stalling trade contracts.
       But they would stay away from some problematic provisions for the time being.
       One of the most controversial provisions is Article 273, which deals with the dissolution of parties and withdrawal of the election rights of party executives.
       Mr Abhisit said now was the time to continue the work of the parliamentary committee on reconciliation, political reform and constitutional amendment.
       The panel, chaired by Nonthaburi senator Direk Thungfang, came up with proposals after spending 45 days studying amendments.
       He said amendments to the consti-tution were possible as long as the changes would benefit the country and not just serve some vested interests.
       Somsak Prissananantakul, a banned member of the dissolved Chart Thai Party, has confirmed that coalition government parties had agreed with the plan to amend Article 190 and to switch back to the single-seat constituency system.
       Mr Somsak is among de facto leaders of the coalition parties who met at the home of Suwat Liptapanlop, a key leader of the Ruamjaithai Chart Pattana Party, to discuss the charter amendments. Mr Suwat is known to be the de facto leader of a faction inside the Ruamjaithai Chart Pattana.
       Mr Somsak said the leaders had agreed the two provisions were less controversial.
       Puea Pandin secretary-general Chaiyos Jiramethakorn said the party supported the plan to amend Article 190 and the electoral system.
       He said Puea Pandin believed Article 237 was highly controversial and should be put to a referendum.
       Puea Thai deputy leader Plodprasop Suraswadi said it would be better to rewrite the whole constitution.

OPPOSITION WON'T JOIN MADAGASCAR UNITY GOVERNMENT

2009-09-06T07:19:00.001-07:00

       Madagascars opposition movements refused to join Andry Rajoelinas unity government yesterday and warned the island nation was heading towards a dangerous situation.
       Mr Rajoelina, who seized power in a March coup, declared on Friday he would head the transition and ordered his prime minister to form a government of national unity and restore constitutional order after months of turmoil.
       Of course we will not participate in this government. We reject it, said Emmanuel Rakotovahiny, a senior member of ex-president Albert Zafys delegation.
       The country is moving towards a dangerous situation where there may never be peace, he added.
       Madagascars four power brokers Messrs Rajoelina, Zafy and former presidents Marc Ravalomanana and Didier Ratsiraka signed a power-sharin g accord last month but have been deadlocked since on who should take key posts. Under the agreement, the four rivals must pick a consensus government,sharing the posts of president, vicepresident, prime minister, and 28 other ministers, among the four parties.
       In a signed statement posted on the popular blog site Sobika, the Ratsiraka movement said Mr Rajoelina had violated the deal by appointing himself and his prime minister to the two key posts.
       [Andry Rajoelina] has flagrantly contradicted what was agreed at Maputo ...the Ratsiraka movement, and all those who support it, reject this decision of Mr Rajoelina, a statement from the Ratsiraka movement declared.
       Mr Rajoelina, a former mayor of Antananarivo, led deadly street protests that toppled Mr Ravalomanana, with help from dissident military officers. He has refused to give up control of the president and prime ministers posts.
       A senior Ravalomanana ally, Fetison Andrianirina, called yesterday for the international community to intervene.
       To unilaterally set up a government was not part of the Maputo deal. Its a form of dictatorship theyre establishing,Mr Andrianirina said.

Iran gets first female minister

2009-09-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

       Parliament yesterday approved Iran's first woman minister,backed a relative novice as oil minister and installed as defence minister a man wanted by Argentina for an attack on a Jewish centre in 1994.
       Deputies rejected three of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposed new 21-member cabinet, which followed the hardliner's re-election in a disputed June election, the speaker announced.
       The outcome of parliament's voting signalled a limited setback for Mr Ahmadinejad, who had four of his firstchoice nominees rejected by the assembly in 2005.
       The June presidential poll, which was followed by huge opposition protests,plunged Iran into its deepest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and exposed deepening divisions in its ruling elite. The legislature is dominated by conservatives, but some of Mr Ahmadinejad's supporters have abandoned him since the election. But crucially for Mr Ahmadinejad, heavyweight nominees including the oil, defence,intelligence, interior, economy and foreign ministers were all approved by MPs.
       "A new era of constructive cooperation between parliament and government started today,"Mr Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by official media Ahmadinejad shortly before the vote result was announced.
       The nomination of Ahmad Vahidi as defence minister has been condemned by Argentina, which accuses him of involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish centre that killed 85 people. Teheran has repeatedly denied any link to the attack.
       Mr Vahidi received the highest number of votes in favour of all nominees,227 out of 286 members of parliament present, in a show of defiance.
       Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi received the lowest number of votes of
       the approved ministers,147.
       Like several other nominees, Mr Mirkazemi, who was commerce minister in Mr Ahmadinejad's outgoing government, had been criticised for lack of experience.
       He faces the challenge of boosting oil and gas output under US and UN sanctions,imposed because of a dispute over Iran's nuclear programme.In 2005,Mr Ahmadinejad failed to get his first three choices for oil minister appointed due to parliamentary opposition.
       The three nominees who were rejected this time were the proposed energy, welfare and education ministers.
       Of three nominated female ministers,only Health Minister Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi was approved. She will become the Islamic Republic's first female minister. Mr Ahmadinejad has three months to propose new candidates to replace those voted down by the 290-seat parliament. Despite the rejection of some ministers, the cabinet can still start working and Mr Ahmadinejad has scheduled its first meeting for Sunday.
       The president's moderate foes say the June 12 election was rigged to secure his re-election and regard the government as illegitimate. The authorities deny the vote was fraudulent.
       Meanwhile, an ally of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has said 72 people were killed in the street protests that erupted after the disputed June presidential election, a reformist website reported yesterday.
       The death toll provided by Alireza Hosseini Beheshti showed an increase of three compared to an estimate he gave on Aug 11. The authorities say at least 26 people were killed and members of the pro-government Islamic Basij militia were among the dead.

Puea Thai seeks court ruling on Budget Act

2009-08-31T23:35:00.000-07:00

       The Puea Thai Party has asked the Constitution Court to rule if the 2010 Budget Act is unconstitutional.
       The party alleged the government had changed its spending plans without giving any details.
       Puea Thai MP for Chiang Mai Surapong Towijakchaikul yesterday filed the request with Chavana Traimas, the secretary-general to the Office of the Constitution Court.
       Mr Surapong claimed the government changed the spending plans without providing any details after the House committee scrutinising the budget bill had finished its second and third readings of the bill.
       His party asked the court to rule if the changes violated Article 167 of the constitution. The article requires details of all spending plans.
       Mr Chavana said the Office of the Constitution Court would consider if the request deserved deliberation by the court and then report its comments to the court.
       The timing of the trial would depend on the judges, he said.
       Parliament President Chai Chidchob yesterday said the Budget Act was con-stitutional because spending plans were changed in line with proper procedures and the House had voted for the act.
       Puea Thai's move was a political ploy and the party should stop it, he said.The Budget Act would be forwarded to the Senate for consideration and later promulgated.
       Mr Chai denied passage of the Budget Act would lead to a House dissolution.
       Recently, the parliament president said the House might be dissolved after the passage of the budget bill. But yesterday he said he had spoken only from the point of view of the opposition.

Can the Democratic Party turn Japan around?

2009-08-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

       Japan might be standing at a turning point in its history as parliamentary elections appear likely to unseat the party that has ruled Japan nearly continuously for more than 50 years.
       With judgement day this Sunday, the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), is leading in the latest opinion polls with 36% voter support. The figure is 20 points higher than that for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
       Voters have increasingly becoming dissatisfied with the coalition government of the LDP and the New Komeito party after it went through three prime ministers in three years; current Prime Minister Taro Aso failed to demonstrate strong leadership, his administration neglected to deal with long-term economic problems, a series of scandals rocked the LDP and the party failed to address domestic concerns, such as Japan's strained pension system and its ageing, shrinking population.
       Many analysts said the DPJ, which won control of the upper House of Councillors in 2007 elections, has a good chance of repeating that victory on Sunday for the House of Representatives by securing a majority of 241 seats or more in the more powerful, lower chamber of the Diet. Such a result would more than double the 112 seats the party now holds.
       DPJ president Yukio Hatoyama, who is likely to become prime minister if his party wins, has promised voters he would bring change to Japan by cutting wasteful spending but not imposing a burden on citizens to pay back the national debt,which, at about 800 trillion yen (US$8.5 trillion), exceeds 160% of the nation's gross domestic product.
       Mr Hatoyama also has vowed to revitalise the world's second-largest economy by increasing household incomes and encouraging spending.
       Voters are hopeful, but the promises sound too good to be true to political observers, and the DPJ faces numerous obstacles to bringing about the change it has promised for Japan.
       Some analysts have criticised the party's economic stimulus plan to draw Japan out of its worst post-war economic slump as being unrealistic.
       While Mr Hatoyama said he plans to review the current government's recordhigh stimulus package, his party's manifesto promises to raise monthly child allowances for children, scrap expressway tolls and gasoline taxes as part of its plan to stimulate consumer spending.
       It said it could secure funds for its proposed programmes by cutting public works projects and increasing domestic demand while at the same time holding off on a sales tax hike for the next four years.
       The LDP has questioned how the DPJ's proposals would be paid for, called them a "pipe dream" and said they would require "magic" to be realised.
       Analysts and the LDP also warned of the DPJ's lack of experience in running the government.
       Only a handful of party members have experience serving in ministerial posts or in the prime minister's office. The party is largely made up of LDP defectors,Social Democrats and former trade unionists.
       "The DPJ has many young, brilliant candidates," political analyst Takao Toshikawa said,"but the party does not have enough competent personnel."
       The DPJ's most experienced, foremost strategist is former party leader and seasoned politician Ichiro Ozawa, who stepped down in May amid a political funding scandal.
       His successor, Mr Hatoyama, has also found himself entangled in the ongoing investigation of the donation scandal,in which his office used deceased people's names to report about 22 million yen ($239,000) in contributions made from 2005 to 2009.
       Even though Mr Ozawa, who left the LDP in frustration over the party's inability to reform, gave up the DPJ's top post, his influence within the party remains strong, analysts said - enough that he might act as "a shadow shogun"to Mr Hatoyama if the party takes power.
       "Hatoyama doesn't have enough experience and stratagem compared with Ozawa," Mr Toshikawa said.
       Mr Ozawa's reputation of being a shrewd manipulator and his success and experience in the kind of backroom politics the voters now abhor may prove as big a burden to the DPJ as his experience is a boon.
       A third issue for the DPJ should it win is how it would deal with Japan's powerful bureaucrats, who have a close relationship with the LDP and helped keep that party in power for so long.
       Mr Hatoyama has argued that politics in Japan is led by its bureaucrats rather than its politicians. The 62-year-old centrist has vowed to wrest control of the budget and policy from Japan's ministries - a job that political observers said would be a monumental one and would also determine the success of a DPJ-led government.
       However, the only non-LDP governments to run Japan since 1955 lasted less than a year in the 1990s, in part because of bureaucratic resistance to their policies. Even the popular, reformminded LDP premier Junichiro Koizumi,who left office in 2006, found it difficult to push change past the entrenched civil service.
       While disgruntlement among voters could hand the DPJ an election victory and bring about a historic change in Japan's government, it would far from ensure DPJ-touted reforms.

US prepares days of mourning

2009-08-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

       The family of Edward Kennedy prepared yesterday to accompany his body on its final journey, as Americans mourned the end of a dynasty that dominated US politics for a generation.
       All government buildings lowered the Stars and Stripes to half-mast, as did private homes in the Massachusetts seaside resort of Hyannis Port, where the veteran US senator died on Tuesday at his family compound aged 77.
       President Barack Obama led tributes from across the US political spectrum and around the world, saying "the outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories which we have all witnessed is a testimony to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives".
       Family members prepared to begin celebrations of a life touched by tragedy,scandals and ultimately success by escorting his coffin yesterday in a cortege to his home city of Boston following a private Mass.
       His body was to lie in state at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library ahead of a Catholic funeral Mass tomorrow during which Mr Obama will eulogise the lion that roars no more.
       Later that day, the Democratic Party giant was to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on a Virginia hillside overlooking Washington, alongside his slain brothers. Mr Obama was not expected to attend the burial.
       The man dubbed the "liberal lion"of the Senate, where he served for 47 years, died after battling brain cancer.
       His disappearance ended his family's half-century-long dominance of the Democratic Party and robbed Mr Obama of a crucial ally in an uphill battle to reform the US healthcare system.
       It was the eldest brother - Joe that father, millionaire businessman Joseph Kennedy had originally intended for political greatness. But that dream was cut short when he died aged only 29 during a World War Two bombing mission.
       Many had thought Kennedy destined for the highest office after his brothers were assassinated - first president John F. Kennedy in 1963, then senator Robert F. Kennedy, as he campaigned for the presidency in 1968.
       But personal scandal - and a reputation for drinking and womanising -got in the way of the youngest Kennedy brother's White House ambitions, chiefly the 1969 death of Mary Jo Kopechne.
       The campaign worker was in Kennedy's car when he drove off a bridge at Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts, and fled the scene of the crash.
       Yet in the end, the man who was often in the crosshairs of conservatives for championing progressive causes earned the respect of former foes.
       More than 100 journalists and ranks of trucks with satellite dishes besieged the sprawling beachfront residence that served as Cape Cod headquarters for the Kennedy clan as strong winds whipped through the moored yachts.
       An emotional Ana Lages, a chemical engineer from Cambridge, Massachusetts, placed flowers at the police line.
       Kennedy, who long fought for immigrants' rights, had helped her get a green card 30 years ago, she said.
       "I'm very grateful to him," she said.While not sharing his left-leaning politics, she admired "a man who helped so many people".
       Interrupting his vacation on Martha's Vineyard, just across the Nantucket Sound from Hyannis Port, Mr Obama pledged that "the extraordinary good that he did lives on".
       Kennedy would have been a valuable ally to Mr Obama, who owed his meteoric rise to the White House last year in part to the senator's stunning endorsement. He was renowned for his legislative skills and just last year described bringing health coverage to the 47 million uninsured Americans as "the cause of my life".

Japan media predicts ruling LDP faces rout

2009-08-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

       Japan's opposition Democratic Party looks set for a landslide victory in an election on Sunday, polls show, ending over five decades of almost unbroken rule by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
       Yukio Hatoyama's Democrats have promised to focus spending on households, cut waste and wrest control of policy from the hands of bureaucrats,a shift from the business-friendly LDP.
       Japanese media predict the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will win,ending a deadlock in parliament where the party and its allies control the less powerful upper chamber.
       Financial markets would generally welcome the prospect of smoother policy-making as Japan tries to revive its economy and deal with the challenges of an ageing, shrinking population. But some analysts worry the DPJ's ambitious spending plans could inflate already sky-high public debt and push up long-term interest rates.
       If the DPJ win a two-thirds majority in the 480-seat lower house, they could enact laws rejected by the upper chamber. That is unlikely to be necessary soon, but would be key if the LDP and its partner win an upper house poll in the middle of next year. Even if the Democrats win a majority, they would need help from the small leftist Social Democratic Party and conservative People's New Party to pass bills smoothly. But a bigger Democratic majority means they would have to pay less attention to their allies, making policy formation easier.
       Too big a win, however, could make managing the party harder.
       A victorious Democratic government would quickly focus on keeping voter support ahead of the 2010 upper house poll, probably by keeping pledges to boost household incomes.
       But the government could be distracted if opponents zero in on a scandal in which Mr Hatoyama's aide reported donations from people who turned out to be dead.
       If the Democratic Party falls short of a majority, it could still take power by forming a coalition with two smaller allies. That would mean it would need to listen more to the Social Democrats and the People's New Party, and the coalition could could have trouble agreeing on policies, especially in the areas of security and diplomacy, where differences are most acute. If the Democrats stumble in the final days and the margin of victory on either side is very small, the LDP and Democrats would each try to woo defectors or small parties to form a coalition.
       The LDP has sought to lure back conservative voters with charges that the Democrats are spendthrift, weak on security and unpatriotic.
       Forecasts for a landslide opposition victory could also prompt some riskaverse voters to opt for the LDP,although analysts said there were few signs that this was occurring.
       A fuzzy outcome would delay the formation of a new government,although parliament must meet to elect a prime minister within 30 days.
       Policy implementation would be difficult, since lawmakers might not necessarily vie for power along clear policy lines. Opinion polls suggest this is unlikely and if the LDP and its junior partner stay in power, they will almost certainly lose the two-thirds majority that has enabled them to enact laws rejected by the opposition-controlled upper chamber.
       The policy stalemate would worsen,at least until the 2010 upper house poll. If the deadlock dragged on, the idea of a "grand coalition" among ruling and opposition blocs could be revived as a way to break the deadlock.
       One of Prime Minister Taro Aso's predecessors, Yasuo Fukuda, tried to form such a coalition with then-DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, but Mr Ozawa's party reject the notion.

Puea Thai fails to halt budget debate

2009-08-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

       House Speaker Chai Chidchob has refused to accept an application by Puea Thai Party lawmakers to delay the deliberation of the annual budget bill proposed by the government.
       Puea Thai MP for Chaiyaphum Charoen Chankomol yesterday asked the speaker to postpone debate on the budget bill because a special House committee did not present details of changes it had made, in which the 2010 budget was to be cut by 22 billion baht to 1.7 trillion baht.
       Mr Charoen said the House could not scrutinise the changes without the details.
       He also questioned the transparency of the changes which the committee had made.
       But the speaker argued that a report on the changes might not be necessary because the special House committee was made up of MPs from both government and opposition parties.
       Yesterday the Puea Thai Party also threatened to seek a Constitution Court ruling on the constitutionality of holding the debate.
       MP Surapong Towijakchaikul said the committee's failure to present details of its changes could be in violation of Article 167 of the constitution.
       Mr Surapong said the opposition would seek a ruling from the court.
       Two days have been set aside for the 2010 budget bill debate, which started yesterday.
       The vote on the bill was set for today but delays have forced the vote to be postponed until next week.
       Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said he was sure the government would have the bill passed.He brushed aside reports that six ministers from the coalition Bhumjaithai Party would abstain from voting.
       The ministers claim they feared their votes could be ruled unconstitutional because they might have a conflict o f interest.
       Mr Suthep said even if they did not vote, the government would still have enough votes to have the bill passed.